15 Януари 2003 - 02:29 ''Peter'' & Sainct in control, De Mevius in trouble Dakar 2003 : Stage 12 - 341 km

After a good rest day for man and machine, the short 341km special around Siwa proved to be very tricky with difficult dune crossings. In the bike race it was however 'a walk in the park' according to Cyril Despres with all the favourites riding together and Giovanni Sala clocking the best time. The car category saw a determined Peterhansel take an option on victory with the best time on the day adding 7min46 to his overall lead on his main rival Masuoka. Two major upsets shook the car race: De Mevius suffered a severe mechanical incident that made him lose his virtual place on the podium while Servia had to pull out with a broken engine. The other big loser of the day was Gerardus De Rooy who destroyed his DAF truck and lost all hopes of victory. Special winner Tchaguine is the new leader of the race.

Coughing and shaking, a sick Giovanni Sala (KTM - n.6) only found out on the bivouac that he had clocked the best time of the day. "Che Buono!!!" was the Italian's first reaction. Starting the special in 12th spot, Sala managed a time of 3h41min14 beating Norwegian privateer Pal Anders Ullevalseter (KTM - n.12) by 8 little seconds.
"I don't know how I won today because I don't feel well at all. I'm very happy of my Dakar so far. Too bad I lost a lot of time with my engine problems. It's great to win two special so I'm delighted."

On a day for the non-favourites, Stanovnik (KTM - n.48, Dabrowski (KTM - n.19), Duclos (KTM - n.102) and Pellicer (KTM - n.35), all privateers, completed the leading six positions. Meanwhile the bigger names of the Dakar took it easy riding most of the stage bunched together. "Five of us were together. We even could have stopped to have a coffee. On days like this, there is no race", explained Fabrizio Meoni (KTM - n.1). The Italian, taking off first was logically caught up by 'Sainct and co.'. On the finish line Meoni had lost an extra 2min on overall leader Sainct (KTM - n.3). The Frenchman leads ahead of compatriot Despres (KTM - n.7) by 10min48 and Meoni by 30min.
"The important thing was not to lose time overall. My day's mission is accomplished".

Mission more than accomplished for another Frenchman, Stephane Peterhansel (Mitsubishi - n.206). The six-time bike winner stormed to special success.
"This morning, we took off with a rebuilt car. We thought that the special wouldn't be easy and that maybe time had come to attack to try and gain some time. Our pace was, from start to finish, very fast. It payed off. It's a good point for us."

Over 7minutes after 'Peter' had crossed the finish, came a very disappointed Masuoka (Mitsubishi - n.200), now 24min18 behind in the overall: "The dunes were impressive and I was careful which explains the time difference with Peterhansel. I was impressed and it's my fault."
Still focused on a second straight rally victory, the Japanese remains optimistic: "I don't think Peter has won the Dakar today. I still have quite some time to come back. Tomorrow whatever the terrain, I will attack."
The major upset of the day was for Gregoire De Mevius (BMW - n.205). After hitting the front of his car on a dune jump, the Belgian was forced to stop with steering problems and had to wait for an assistance truck to take him to the bivouac.
Luc Alphand (n.221) who had already pulled his team mate out the sand earlier in the stage, lost track of the leading BMW and only found out about the serious problem once on the finish line.
"Apparently it's a serious mechanical problem. What could we have done? It's easy to have regrets after... It's terrible because this morning he was taking it easy."
A nightmare of a stage for De Mevius but also for Josep-Maria Servia (Schlesser Ford - n.209) who broke his engine after 40kms and was forced to pull out of the race.

Third place of the special went to Jean-Pierre Fontenay (Mitsubishi - n.202), 16min45 adrift. On a regular Pajero, Fontenay moves up to third place overall but remains over 2h25min off the pace set by Peterhansel's Evo. And in the car overall standing, the top five positions are all Mitsubishi property with Biasion 4th and Sousa 5th. The only main concern for the Japanese manufactor could come from the arch-rival Nissan of De Villiers (N.217), 5th of the special and 6th overall at 30minutes of the closest 'Mitsu'.

In the trucks, Gerardus De Rooy (DAF - n.414), race leader before the Siwa special, had to bid farewell to victory hopes for his first Dakar as a driver. At km 152, the young Dutchman crashed after jumping a dune destroying a truck that father Jan had to come back and fetch after the end of the special.

Meanwhile Vladimir Tchaguine (Kamaz - n.407) captured the stage 10min19 ahead of De Rooy (DAF - n.409) and 14min10 ahead of Kabirov (Kamaz - n.412). The Russian naturally moves up to top spot overall with a very comfortable 1h06min lead on De Azevedo (Tatra - n.410).

Press info - rally Dakar, 14/01/2003