Dakar Rally : News from leg 13458 km, including 260 against the clock, are on the menu of the thirteenth stage. A very fast route awaits the participants.
Rally pilots will again have an opportunity of having a whale of a time, even if copilots will still have to
work on finding the right route in this maze of crisscrossing trails looping around baobabs. A made-to-measure playground for the Volkswagen that will try to get a new stage victory again while the Mitsubishi will mainly try not to make the same mistakes as they made last year on this same section.
Spaniard Isidre Esteve, winner of the 12th special stage yesterday, was the first to get to grips with today's special stage.
Now that the first 20 bikes have completed 34 km, Frenchman Casteu is the virtual leader of the day's special stage, 1" ahead of Spanish team-mate Isidre Esteve. Corsican biker Michel Marchini has recorded the third best time of the day's special so far, 28" behind provisional leader David Casteu, but 13" ahead of Cyril Despres and Marc Coma, place respectively in 4th and 5th.
Now that the first 20 bikes have completed 71 km, Frenchman Cyril Despres is the virtual leader of the day's special stage, 11" and 1'33 ahead of countrymen Michel Marchini and Thierry Bethys respectively.
Having made a navigation error after 35 km, Spaniard Marc Coma, leader of the general rankings, is currently taking a parallel route to the ideal track for the day's special stage, around 6 km away. He is accompanied by Polish rider Jacek Czachor.
