14 Jan 2010

Portuguese WR450F rider Helder Rodrigues suffered a series of naviagtional errors on the 11th stage that leaves him trailing a podium spot by seven minutes.

After an early awakening followed by a journey through the Andes via the Paso Libertadores pass, at an altitude of 3500 m, the Dakar riders tackled a 220-km special similar to the previous day’s stage: fast along winding tracks and for the most part downhill.

In these conditions, Catalan Marc Coma was favourite to win the stage. But a bad navigation mistake put paid to that. The first rider away, after 13 km he carried on straight ahead instead of turning right, meaning he rode for 3 km in one direction, then 3 km in the other before rejoining the correct route, losing around a dozen minutes to the quickest riders at CP1 (after 51 km). The competitors just behind him made the same mistake, but because they saw the Spaniard backtracking, they were able to limit the damage.

Dutch rider Frans Verhoeven won the stage but Cyril Despres maintains a healthy overall lead. Pal Anders Ullevalseter was the big winner of the day in his quest for a place on the podium. The Norwegian finished in fourth place on the day, behind Alain Duclos, strengthening his second place in the general standings with a lead that now stands at 2min 40sec over Lopez and more importantly almost 10min over Rodrigues.

Argentinean Raptor rider Sebastian Halpern lead a Yamaha 1-2-3-4-5 by winning his second special. With a time of 3.18:33, Halpern beat his countryman Alejandro Patronelli by 4min 31sec, and leader of the general standings, Marcos Patronelli by 5min 47sec. There was no change in the general standings however, where Marcos Patronelli is now way ahead with a lead that stands at 2hr 23min 05sec over his brother Alejandro.

2010 Dakar Rally overall motorcycle top ten

 2010 Dakar Rally overall ATV top ten