For those of you who can never get enough of the stunning scenery on the Dakar, here’s a video summary of some of the most breathtaking landscapes the competitors got to pass on their way through Argentina, Chile, and Peru.

Here’s a video summary of the car section in 2012 – even though the winner was an old acquaintance, this year’s Dakar in the car section was truly one of a kind.

Here’s a video summary of the bike category 2012 – naturally, just like in the years before, the dominating subject is the competition between Marc Coma and Cyril Despres.

The last day of this amazing Dakar saw two Frenchmen conquering the podiums in their respective categories: Cyril Despres in the bike category claimed his fourth Dakar victory, and Stephane Peterhansel took his fourth title in the car section – and this is also his tenth Dakar title overall!

While “Peter” had grabbed the lead in his category on the fourth stage and never let go until the end of this year’s Dakar, it was a much closer call for Despres. His rival Marc Coma was often just seconds away and claimed more stage victories this year, but still, in the end it was Despres who triumphed and scored his fourth Dakar title. However, despite his technical problems that probably cost him this year’s title, Marc is already looking forward to the next Dakar. After congratulating Despres on his title, he said what probably everyone was thinking: if the two champions keep alternating for the titles, 2013 will be Marc’s turn to reclaim the title. We’ll see how this fans out … In any case, congrats to Cyril Despres and Stephane Peterhansel!

But let’s not forget about the rest of the competition. In the bike section, Helder Rodrigues joined the two champions on the podium, with only one stage victory, but an ever-consistent performance keeping him in third place since stage four. Naturally, Helder is aiming to win in the future: “I’ll try and find the solution to be as good as they are,” said the Portuguese after the rally, referring to the incredible Coma and Despres. Fourth and fifth place were taken by Spaniard Viladoms and Slovak Svitko, both finishing the Dakar with a gap of less than two hours between themselves and the winner. Read the rest of this entry »

After a full week on top of the general standings, it did not come as a surprise that Alejandro Patronelli managed to defend his title in the Dakar 2012. And just like in 2010, it was a double victory for the Patronelli family – only this time around, it was Marcos’ turn to finish as the runner-up of his older brother, with a gap of 1:20’17” between them. Completing the all-Argentinean podium was Tomas Maffei, who had really been the only other quad driver this year to prove as serious competition for the Patronelli brothers.

Nevertheless, for future Dakars there’s two more quad drivers to watch out for: Chilean Casale, who finished in fourth place, and La Fuente from Uruguay, who came in fifth, both managed to snug into the top three between the three Argentinians at some point during the rally, with the latter even claiming two stage victories. Read the rest of this entry »

Have you ever wondered what the average workday of Etienne Lavigne looks like on a Dakar? Here’s a video to give you an idea of the duties of the boss of the rally.

The last day of the Dakar 2012 may turn out to be the hardest – and still offers opportunities for some of the contestants to change their overall standings. With a margin of just over 11 minutes minutes, Marc Coma still has a chance to beat Cyril Despres to the fourth Dakar win, and while things in the other categories seem settled, the tricky dunes on the way to Lima could still entrap any of the favourites and make them lose precious time.

The Patronellis took things slowly on the second-to-last day of the Dakar 2012. With a comfortable margin of over two hours for Alejandro and over one hour for Marcos to separate them from the third-placed Maffei, it didn’t hurt to finish in third and fourth place for once and leave the winnig places to Maffei and La Fuente, who on this year’s Dakar was no competition for the title, but proved his talent and will most likely be a contestant for the podium in the years to come.

In the truck category, Karginov brought home another Kamaz victory, and De Azevedo grabbed the runner-up place of the stage, but the podium places are pretty much settled for the section: De Rooy is still in the lead, with a gap of 53’16” ahead of fellow Dutch team-mate Stacey, and the third-placed Ardavichus trailing him by 1:48’25”. The rest of the competition is over 5 hours behind the leader.

The second-to-last stage of the Dakar 2012 saw Helder Rodrigues finally claiming a stage victory – his first of the year but fifth overall. However, Cyril Despres certainly had no reason to be sad about his runner-up place, as he took the lead of the general classifications from his rival Marc Coma. The Catalan was truly out of luck today, first struggling with a broken gear-box and then losing precious time due to a navigational mistake. This could well mean the race for the fourth title is decided, but you can never know on a Dakar.

In the car section, Peterhansel, De Villiers and Novitskiy respectively mount the podium for the stage, and all signs point to two Mini drivers on the podium for the whole Dakar, as well. “Peter” has added over 22 minutes to the gap between himself and his runner-up for the title, Nani Roma, and De Villiers seems to sit comfortably in third place.

Robby Gordon, in an effort to grab another stage victory with the overall lead out of his reach, once more proved his perseverance on a most unfortunate stage. Having lost a few minutes on the same dunes that cost Roma 25 minutes, the Hummer driver pushed even harder, and, flying over a dune, somersaulted at km 204. Luckily, the Americans weren’t hurt, and, with a lot of spectators helping to put the Hummer back on his wheels, Robby was even able to finish the stage only 36’01” after the winner. Sounds like a lot? Well, not a lot of people would come out of a somersault unharmed and even manage to complete the stage within the top ten of the day afterwards.

With a fantastic performance on the twelfth stage, Marc Coma not only picks up another stage victory in Nazca, but also reclaims the lead in the general standings, in which he is now 1’35” ahead of Cyril Despres. Marc started in third position today and went flat out all through the special. Fellow Spaniards Joan Barreda Bort, the revelation of the Dakar 2012, and Jordi Viladoms, Marc’s former team-mate, join the Catalan on the podium, finishing 2’43” and 3’10” respectively behind the winner.

Cyril Despres had to settle for fourth place of the stage, trailing his rival by 3’57”. As both three-times winners predicted, they’re obviously keeping us all in suspense until the very end of the rally.

Another dazzling performance stirred up the car section today: Read the rest of this entry »