The Dakar Rally is widely regarded as the toughest motorsport event in the world, held in some of the most gruesome conditions known to man. Now in its 34th edition, the 2013 Dakar Rally – which is no longer held in Africa due to law and order issues – started in Lima, Peru, went through Argentina, and ended in Chile. 124 motorcycle riders, 26 quad drivers, 89 car crews and 60 truck crews competed in their respective classes on some of the harshest terrain and most hostile environments on the planet. Flagging off in Lima, Peru on Jan 5th, the competitors raced through 14 stages of competition.
In the most popular category, the motorcycles, it was defending champion, Frenchman Cyril Despres, on his Red Bull backed KTM who claimed first place. This was his fifth win in the Dakar and probably his hardest race ever. Competing in his 12th Dakar rally, Cyril Despres is now just one win away from equaling the record for the most victories on a motorcycle, held by none other than Stéphane Peterhansel. However, it was not all-smooth sailing for Cyril as the Yamaha riders proved that they could take the fight to KTM, which had dominated the race. However due to some costly mistakes by the Yamaha riders, Ruben Faria of Portugal finished in second and Francisco Lopez came in third – both riding KTM’s.
The quads category is a relative new category in the rally and this year it seemed more competitive than ever. It was the Argentinean Yamaha driver Marcos Patronelli, following in his older brothers footsteps who claimed victory ahead of fellow Yamaha riders Ignacio Casale of Chile and Rafa? Sonik form Poland. The last 4 Dakar rallies have been won by the Patronelli brothers, but there were some new riders this year that picked up stage wins and showed they could take the fight to the brothers in the coming years.
The cars category was also won by another defending champion, Stéphane Peterhansel, making it his fifth win in a car and 11th total victory counting all categories, which is a new record. The Frenchman powered his rally prepped Mini to beat South African Giniel de Villiers in his Toyota by 42 minutes and 22 seconds, as well as his Mini teammate, Russian driver Leonid Novitskiy by 1 hour and 28 minutes. However, his win had more to do with the bad luck of his rivals, than with the Mini’s supremacy on the course. Peterhansel won two stages, but he spent the first week fighting off the onslaughts of Nasser Al-Attiyah’s buggy, and it was thanks to the Qatari’s retirement in stage 9 that he was able to manage his comfortable buffer over de Villiers, who’s navigational mistake in stage 3 cost him a shot at the title.
In the truck category, the Kamaz’s made a comeback and took their 11th Dakar win and most importantly, pulled off a stunning 1-2-3 in Santiago with Russians Eduard Nikolaev, Ayrat Mardeev and Andrey Karginov. Champion Nikolaev is the only first time winner this year in all the categories and is also the first truck driver in the history of the rally to win the race without winning any stages.
Special mention also has to go to the team Race2Recovery that consisted mainly of disabled British Army veterans competing the Dakar in four Land Rover Defender-based Bowler Wildcats. Despite fielding four cars, only one could finish as the others retired from the race for various reasons. In fact, even the car that finished faced various gremlins and in the first half of the race had to be mainly driven at night to take care of overheating problems. Despite all this, the team managed to do a commendable job and finish the grueling rally.However, once again demonstrating why Dakar is regarded as such a tough race, French rider Thomas Bourgin lost his life in an unfortunate incident after he met with an accident with a Police car in Chile. In another incident two people lost their lives and seven were injured when a support vehicle of the Race2Recovery team met with an accident with two taxis.
After 8000 kilometres under their belts, the racers paraded on the podium set up opposite Santiago’s Palacio de la Moneda to celebrate their arrival in the Chilean capital, as the President of the Republic emerged from the palace to congratulate the winners of the 2013 Dakar after what had been a long & brutal race across varied terrain.
Monte Carlo Thriller to Start 2013 WRC Season
The Monte Carlo Rally set the stage for yet another competitive year as drivers took to the course for the first rally in the calendar of the World Rally Championship. Though the drivers fought hard for the top spot in the rally, they were unanimous about it being one of the toughest they have participated in. The weather conditions made it tremendously difficult for the drivers to keep their cars on the road, with the ice and loose snow being one of the reasons for a flurry of retirements.
Braving all odds, it was Sebastian Loeb who was the front runner in the race and he maintained the lead throughout the stages to clinch his 7th win at Monte Carlo. The nine time world rally champion was chased ruthlessly by VW driver Sebastien Ogier in the competitive debut of the Polo R WRC, but Ogier had to settle for the runners-up position. Technically second in the points table to Loeb, Ogier is well aware of the fact that the fellow Frenchman will participate only for the first four rallies this season after his decision to take a semi-retirement, and as such is not a threat to him in the race for the title. Despite this, the VW Polo R had an impressive outing with Ogier finishing a close 1 minute 43 seconds behind Loeb, with the inclement weather and cancellation of the last two stages denying him a chance to fight for the top spot.
Ford driver, Evgeny Novikov looked in top form but damaged his car early on Moulinet and tried to struggle on with three functioning wheels, but had to retire. The Russian had been fending off Citroen’s Dani Sordo for third position until that time. Sordo meanwhile settled in for 3rd position as Mikko Hirvonen took 4th.
Interestingly though, the championship has just begun and Volkswagen is already making their intentions clear, they came intending to win and with Loeb in semi-retirement, they know they have a strong chance to win this year. There was drama at the end though, as due to the adverse weather conditions a large number of fans left the final two stages in a hurry and clogged the roads around the stages. Due to this, the last two stages of the rally were cancelled on safety grounds, with the results being taken from the end of SS16 at which point of time Loeb was comfortably in the lead.
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