+ Click to Enlarge AFRICAN RUSH HOUR : France's Stephane Peterhansel drives his Mitsubishi through a village during the 12th stage of the Dakar between Ayoun el Atrous (Mauritania) and Kayes (Mali) on January 18, 2007. At this point he was leading the race. Picture: AFP

January 18, 2007
By Paul Defosseux

Kayes, Mali - Spanish rider Isidre Esteve Pujol and his car-driving compatriot Carlos Sainz came home first in their respective sections on Thursday after the 257km stage 12 of the Lisbon-Dakar rally between Ayoun el Atrous in Mauritania and Kayes in Mali.

For Sainz, this was a third stage win in this year's race, but the former World rally champion still has plenty of work to do in the overall standings where this win left him ninth behind France's Stephane Peterhansel, the race leader.

"It was a difficult stage both in terms of driving and navigation," he said. "It was also a fast one from the start. The car was hit a bit because there were quite a lot of tricky paths between trees.

"My win is particularly important because the VW team was a bit down after all that has happened. By winning, we showed again that we are competitive and that the work done was useful.

"It showed to the outside world that the team, the car and the organisation are great performers. Our mechanical problems were like a rude awakening and during trials nothing had led us to thinking it might actually happen.

"I had come to win. Now I will keep fighting for stage victories."

Sainz, who is more than seven hours behind Peterhansel, was a previous overall leader of the race, as was his South African team mate Giniel De Villiers whose car burned but is now back in the running in 12th.

But both men suffered serious mechanical difficulties earlier in the week that knocked them out of contention. De Villiers is 8hr45min47sec off the pace.

Former world ski champion and Dakar title-holder Luc Alphand came home third on Thursday to cut his deficit in the standings on his Mitsubishi team mate Peterhansel to 6min30.

"I am happy to be through this tricky day - navigation was tough," Peterhansel, who was sixth on Thursday, said.

"I lost a bit of time over Luc but it's not so bad. Today I am the leader but there can still be a technical problem, a navigation or even a driving error.

"So far there have been no race strategy orders but we have responsibilities and we are big boys. We can't go for it as if we had nothing to lose. It would not be nice if we were to crash the cars at this stage in the race."

Pujol, riding a KTM, picked up his second stage of 2007 and a ninth for his team.
For the first time, overall leader Marc Coma lost time and trailed home 16th and 17min20 behind Pujol but the Spaniard is still firmly in control with a nearly 53min cushion over KTM team mate Cyril Despres of France. - AFP

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Results from stage 12 of the Dakar Rally, 257km between Ayoun el Atrous in Mauritania and Kayes in Mali on Thursday, January 18, 2007:

Motorcycles
1 Isidre Esteve Pujol (ESP) KTM 3hr4min46
2 Paulo Goncalves (POR) Honda +3min03
3 Jacek Czachor (POL) KTM +4min04
4 Tom Classen (RSA) KTM +7min13
5 Fabien Planet (FRA) KTM +8min02
6 Pal Andres Ullevalseter (NOR) KTM +10min04
7 Jean De Azevedo (BRA) KTM +12min08
8 David Casteu (FRA) KTM +12min21
9 Janis Vinters (LAT) KTM +13min38
10 Michel Marchini (FRA) Yamaha +14min10

Overall standings
1 Marc Coma (ESP) KTM 44hr47min16
2 Cyril Despres (FRA) KTM +52min48
3 David Casteu (FRA) KTM +1hr10min13
4 Chris Blais (USA) KTM +1hr41min33
5 Pal Anders Ullevalseter (NOR) KTM +2hr05min04
6 Isidre Esteve Pujol (ESP) KTM +2hr35min04
7 Helder Rodrigues (POR) Yamaha +2hr56min54
8 Janis Vinters (LAT) KTM +3hr29min00
9 Michel Marchini (FRA) Yamaha +3hr36min35
10 Thierry Béthys (FRA) Honda +3hr53min24

Cars
1 Carlos Sainz (ESP) VW 2hr58min56
2 Carlos Sousa (POR) VW +3min53
3 Luc Alphand (FRA) Mitsubishi +4min52
4 Nasser Saleh Al Attiyah (QAT) BMW +6min10
5 Joan Nani Roma (ESP) Mitsubishi +6min32
6 Stéphane Peterhansel (FRA) Mitsubishi +8min19
7 Krzysztof Holowczyc (POL) Nissan +9min58
8 Mark Miller (USA) VW +10min07
9 Sergey Shmakov (RUS) Buggy +11min19
10 Jean-Louis Schlesser (FRA) Ford +11min31

Overall standings
1 Stéphane Peterhansel (FRA) Mitsubishi 40hr42min34
2 Luc Alphand (FRA) Mitsubishi +6min29
3 Jean-Louis Schlesser (FRA) Ford +1hr34min02
4 Nasser Saleh Al Attiyah (QAT) BMW +1hr58min04
5 Mark Miller (USA) VW +2hr15min55
6 Hiroshi Masuoka (JPN) Mitsubishi +2hr27min10
7 Carlos Sousa (POR) VW +5hr16min21
8 Robby Gordon (USA) Hummer +7hr02min57
9 Carlos Sainz (ESP) VW +7hr37min40
10 Stéphane Henrard (BEL) VW +7hr51min39

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