16 January 2003 - 14:01 Meoni and Vatanen storm to special win Dakar 2003 Stage 13 - 569 km

In a scenery made for Clint Eastwood or John Wayne, the 199 remaining vehicles minus De Mevius (107 bikes, 64 cars and 28 trucks) of the Dakar caravan took to the 657kms of stage 13 between Siwa and Dakhla. Meoni's race against time finished in impressive fashion with the Italian cutting off almost half of the lead Sainct had on him (30min yesterday, 16min44 today) before a special Meoni conquered in style. On what Giniel De Villiers considers as "a Mitsubishi rest day", Nissan colleague Ari Vatanen stormed to stage win while it appeared that Masuoka was not too concerned by catching up time on Peterhansel in the overall. In the truck race, Firdaus Kabirov grabbed his first special of the 2003 Telefonica Dakar rally. Tchaguine keeps his comfortable lead.

In a fantastic time of 4h57min18 on the 569kms of the special, 'Il Maestro' Meoni (KTM - n.1) proved that at 45 years of age and on a tremendous twin- cyclinder machine, a third consecutive success on the rally was still possible. Grazie Fabrizio, you have made this bike race a real thriller. Some might even say: what if Meoni hadn't lost half an hour because of his engine problems? Meoni who would have enjoyed even more navigation gave all he had on the day.
"I went to my maximum. I couldn't go faster today."

Over 13 minutes (13min16) adrift came overall leader Richard Sainct (KTM - n.3) in second spot. Closely followed by Despres (KTM - n.7) at 13min30, a fourth Gauloise team rider Jean Brucy (KTM - n.9) at 16min59 and privateer Francois Flick (KTM - n.22) at 16min59. In the new overall Sainct's lead drops down to 11min02 on Despres and... 16min44 on Meoni.
"Every remaining day will not be like this one. I dont think he (Meoni) can gain as much time every day. I remain confident even if you can never be sure of anything," admitted the Frenchman.
Still as impressive, Brazil's Jean De Azevedo who finished sixth of the special still comfortably leads the Marathon and Amateur standings.

On four wheels and for the first time in the rally three non-Mitsubishi cars grabbed the front three places of the stage.
"Yesterday, I spoke to my 13 year-old son on the phone and he told me I had to slow down because I had a big enough lead," was Peterhansel's excuse.
At a very impressive pace, Ari Vatanen (Nissan - n.204) clocked the best time and by doing so claimed his second special of the race and his 47th on a Dakar.
"Second day without problems and second special victory. It's true however that the Mitsubishis took it easy today."

Indeed behind the 'flying Finn', Alphand (BMW - n.221) at 1min18 and De Villiers (Nissan - n.217) at 8min22, the first Mitsubishi was that of Carlos Sousa (Mitsubishi - n.211) over 15minutes adrift. In the day's battle for overall leadership, Peterhansel (Mitsubishi - n.206) gained an extra 1min32 on Masuoka (Mitsubishi - n.200). And it clearly appeared that the Japanese had settled with a special where he could not make a serious difference on the Frenchman.
"Why attack more? He knows he can't escape" insisted 'Peter'.

Only time and possible incidents will tell if Masuoka can change the course of the race. In the overall, 'Peter' now has a 25min50 lead on his team mate and 5 Mitsubishis remain in the five leading positions. The only worry could come from Giniel De Villiers and his Nissan. "We're only 23 minutes behind Sousa. There still are a few stages left and anything can happen."

In the heaviest of categories, Firdaus Kabirov (Kamaz - n.412) claimed his first special of the 25th edition. The Russian beat Jan De Rooy (DAF - n.409) by 2min29 while his compatriot Vladimir Tchaguine (Kamaz - n.407) was 7min15 behind. The winner of the last two rallies managed to do exactly what he had planned a day before: "I'm now going to control the race. The most important thing is not to damage the truck in the upcoming days."
Tchaguine remains an easy leader with an overall 1h08min lead of De Azevedo (Tatra - n.410) and over 2 hours on De Rooy.

Press info - rally Dakar, 15/01/2003