Carlos Sainz gives up and Stéphane Peterhansel reinforces the attack on Nani Roma's leadership. In a nutshell, yesterday's stage of the Dakar 2014 was like that.
Yesterday's stage was once again worthy of a Hollywood film, invariably a feature present every day of this Dakar 2014.
There were withdrawals, namely Carlos Sainz's after an accident without major consequences for the driver and navigator, but which led to the end of the race for the Spaniard. It all happened when Carlos Sainz, to avoid running out of gas in his Buggy SMG, left the route traced by the organization.
And there was pursuit worthy of an action movie. Namely the undefeated Stéphane Peterhansel who every day has been playing for the still leader of the 2014 Dakar Nani Roma. After losing 11 minutes to the Frenchman yesterday, Nani Roma returned today to concede another 9'55s. The Spaniard's delay is partly justified by the attack on a dune in the 1st part of the course, followed by a hole in the second. In short, this means the two are now just 2m15 apart.
Thus, the general changed little, Nani Roma continues ahead, now just 2m15s from Stéphane Peterhansel, while in the fight for third place, which is still in the possession of Orlando Terranova, Nasser Al Attiyah (winner of the 10th stage) is to about six minutes. There will be no lack of drama and action in the 3 days left to the end of this Dakar 2014.