Gordon wins shortened Dakar stage

American Robby Gordon took victory in the 11th stage of the Dakar Rally, which was shortened due to the poor weather conditions.

The simultaneous flooding of two rivers at the 69 and 85-km marks forced the race direction to halt the special after the first control point, just 84 kms into the stage, originally 219 km long.

Gordon, driving a Hummer, was fastest when the stage was stopped and was therefore awarded victory, the first for the American in this year’s edition of the event. It was also his eighth stage victory in the Dakar.

Ronan Chabot was second in the SMG Buggy, 38 seconds behind Gordon, while Lucio Alvarez finished in third in the Overdrive Toyota.

Rally leader Stephane Peterhansel lost just around half a minute to main rival Giniel de Villiers after finishing in sixth position, one place behind the South African.

X-raid’s Peterhansel continues to lead the event by nearly 52 minutes from de Villiers, who was left lamenting the stage was shortened, as he reckoned he could have reduced the gap to his rival even more.

“When they stopped us we waited for quite a few minutes for the first car to arrive – I think. I don’t know, close to ten minutes, maybe,” he said.

“It’s unfortunate, but, we had a good stage up until then. The car ran well, so it’s a pity the stage had to be stopped.

“Stephane said they made a mistake and maybe we had a chance to take 10 or 15 minutes, but he’s a long way in the lead, over 50 minutes. It could maybe put just a little bit more pressure on. But it’s not to be, so we’ll try again tomorrow.”

Tomorrow’s stage is a 319-km special from Fiambala to Copiapo, during which the drivers will cross the Andes and return to the Atacama desert.

AUTOSPORT Dakar blogs:

Race2Recovery: A different kind of battle
AUTOSPORT’s Sam Tremayne with X-raid

Stage eleven times:
 
Pos  Driver                  Team/Car            Time/Gap
  1.  Robby Gordon            Gordon Hummer        50m51s
  2.  Ronan Chabot            SMG Buggy            +   38s
  3.  Lucio Alvarez           Overdrive Toyota     + 1m47s
  4.  Bernard Errandonea      SMG Buggy            + 3m29s
  5.  Giniel De Villiers      Imperial Toyota      + 3m55s
  6.  Stephane Peterhansel    X-raid Mini          + 4m34s
  7.  Nunzio Coffaro          Azimut Toyota        + 4m57s
  8.  Carlos Sousa            Great Wall           + 5m25s
  9.  Boris Gadasin           G-Force Nissan       + 6m52s
 10.  Orlando Terranova       X-raid BMW           + 7m12s
 

Source: http://www.iracing.com/inracingnews/real-world-racing/3rdparty/gordon-wins-shortened-dakar-stage

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