• Peterhansel leads ahead of penultimate leg
• Three MINIs in the top ten on Wednesday’s stage

Just two days and a total of 736 kilometres against the clock remain for the competitors at the Dakar 2021. The MINI JCW Buggy crew of Stéphane Peterhansel and Edouard Boulanger (both FRA) start tomorrow’s penultimate leg with a lead of 17 minutes over Nasser Al-Attiyah in the Toyota, having finished third on stage ten. Carlos Sainz and Lucas Cruz (both ESP) were fourth in the MINI JCW Buggy. The MINI JCW Rally pairing of Vladimir Vasilyev (RUS) and Dmitry Tsyro (UKR) ended the stage in seventh place.

Yesterday’s stage win meant Peterhansel and Boulanger were first onto the route on Wednesday. Despite again being faced with difficult navigation, only two of their rivals went faster than the French duo. Peterhansel eventually finished third, dropping just 49 seconds to the man currently second in the overall standings, Nasser Al-Attiyah.

Sainz and Cruz did not get off to the start they would have been hoping for. Navigation issues resulted in them losing time and dropping down the timings list. However, they found their rhythm later on in the stage and managed to recover the majority of that time and climb back into fourth by the finish.

Stéphane Peterhansel: “We were actually expecting an easy stage. It wasn’t long and there were not many stones, but the navigation was very difficult. It felt like the organisers wanted the competitors to go the wrong way.”

Carlos Sainz: “Navigation was tough on the first part of the stage and we lost a lot of time. It got better after that, but I spent a lot of time driving through dust and had to overtake five or six cars. It was not an easy day for me.”

The penultimate day of the Dakar 2021 sees the competitors face the longest special stage of the rally, with a whopping 511 kilometres against the clock. The route heads back into the dunes – for just short of 100 kilometres!

—

Ergebnis SS10
1. Y. Al-Rajhi (KSA) / D. von Zitzewitz (GER) – Toyota – 3h 03m 57s
2. N. Al-Attiyah (QAT) / M. Baumel (FRA) – Toyota – 3h 06m 01s
3. S. Peterhansel (FRA) / E. Boulanger (FRA) – MINI JCW Buggy – 3h 06m 50s
4. C. Sainz /ESP) / L. Cruz (ESP) – MINI JCW Buggy – 3h 08m 09s
5. J. Przygonski (POL) / T. Gottschalk (GER) – Toyota -3h 09m 03s
…
7. V. Vasilyev (RUS) / D. Tsyro (UKR) – MINI JCW Rally – 3h 11m 29s
…
16. D. Krotov (RUS) / O. Uperenko (RUS) – MINI JCW Rally – 3h 17m 40s
…
28. G. Spinelli (BRA) / Y. Haddad (BRA) – MINI ALL4 Racing – 3h 28m 05s
29. V. Khoroshavtsev (RUS) / A. Nikolaev (RUS) – MINI JCW Rally – 3h 28m 32s

Gesamtwertung nach SS10
1. S. Peterhansel (FRA) / E. Boulanger (FRA) – MINI JCW Buggy – 37h 33m 06s
2. N. Al-Attiyah (QAT) / M. Baumel (FRA) – Toyota – 37h 50m 07s
3. C. Sainz /ESP) / L. Cruz (ESP) – MINI JCW Buggy – 38h 36m 50s
4. J. Przygonski (POL) / T. Gottschalk (GER) – Toyota – 39h 51m 49s
5. N. Roma (ESP) / A. Winocq (FRA) – Prodrive BRX Hunter – 40h 23m 28s
…
7. V. Vasilyev (RUS) / D. Tsyro (UKR) – MINI JCW Rally – 40h 48m 02s
…
17. G. Spinelli (BRA) / Y. Haddad (BRA) – MINI ALL4 Racing – 43h43m 05s
…
24. V. Khoroshavtsev (RUS) / A. Nikolaev (RUS) – MINI JCW Rally – 45h 55m 43s
…
30. D. Krotov (RUS) / O. Uperenko (RUS) – MINI JCW Rally – 47h 57m 28s

The post Dakar 2021 // Stage 10: The Dakar enters the finishing straight appeared first on X-raid Team.