Dakar 2011 – A review of the first six stages
The first week of the Dakar Rally was a triumph for Volkswagen: they have led the rally from day one, and won five of six stages. After taking the first four places during yesterday’s stage, the German car manufacturer is firmly in command of the overall standings with their top drivers Carlos Sainz and Nassar Al-Attiyah. The only real remaining threat for VW is the BMW piloted by Stephane Peterhansel, but he is already almost 15 minutes behind the two VW drivers.
The story of the trucks is similar to the cars, as the almighty Russian Kamaz team is leading the overall standings for the sixth consecutive day, Russians Firdaus Kabirov and Vladimir Chagin are leading the truck rankings, while Czech Tatra driver Ales Loprais is third. Chagin has won three stages, Kabirov two and Loprais one. The rest of the trucks are already more than one and a half hours behind the leaders, again it seems like the top three will be battling for the overall victory. But it is still Dakar, one strike of bad luck and the rally is over, many cars and trucks have already been eliminated the past week.
TThe rally really kicked off on Sunday with a special stage from Victoria to Cordoba in Argentina, a mountainous route with narrow tracks where overtaking was difficult. The drivers and riders were surprised by rain. Two trucks had to retire from the rally during stage one. The Ginaf of Dutchman Wulfert van Ginkel crashed hard on the motorway on its way to the start of the stage. His truck hit a piece of metal which pierced his right front tyre, the tyre exploded and sent van Ginkel’s truck into a frightening summersault before it crashed into the barrier. The truck was a total loss, but fortunately neither of the occupants were seriously injured. Bad luck for Dutchman Gerard de Rooy as well, his Iveco hit a bump, landed hard and de Rooy injured his back and had to retire. He flew back to the Netherlands and the next day x-ray images revealed he had sustained a hairline crack in one of his vertebrae.
IStage two was from Cordoba to San Miguel de Tucuman, a stage through a bumpy forest track and bushy terrain, and again the riders and drivers were surprised by heavy rain. Kamaz drivers Chagin and Kabirov battled for first and second position, but Chagin ran into technical problems and his team colleague Kabirov took the stage win and became the leader in the truck standings.
Stage three was from San Miguel de Tucuman to San Salvador de Jujuy, the first part was through the desert, the second part through mountainous forested terrain. Chagin did what everyone expected him to do, and made up for the time he lost the day before, and finished 6m45s ahead of Kabirov, who lost the lead in the truck standings to Chagin again.
Stage four led from San Salvador de Jujuy to Calama, the relatively short route of 207 km went over the Andes mountains, with the arrival in Chili. Truck ‘Tsar’ Chagin again won the stage, and left no doubt about his goal this year: to win the rally for the seventh time. After the fourth stage he was leading the overall standings, followed by Kabirov and Tatra driver Loprais. Fourth was the MAN of German Franz Echter, but he is 46m08s behind the leader, the second fastest MAN of Dutchman Marcel van Vliet is in tenth place.
Stage five was the first very difficult stage, a 423 km long stage from Calama to Iquique, which led through dunes and the huge sandy hills of the Attacama desert, but with a great reward: the last few kilometers was up a huge sandy hill, once at the top the drivers overlooked the finish and the bivouac at Iquique, with the ocean on the background. The last two kilometers were downhill at an 32 degree angle, for some of the bikes too steep, as the fuel in the tank couldn’t reach the engine anymore, and the engine cut off, and they had to freewheel down the hill in the deep sand, sometimes at speeds of over 150 km.
During this stage many competitors got into real trouble, many riders fell and damaged their bike, many drivers got stuck in the sand and needed assistance to free their car or truck, many got lost in the desert, in other words: the Dakar Rally at its best. Navigation was difficult. A bad stage for Kamaz driver Chagin, he became fourth and lost the lead to Kabirov who scored his second stage victory. Chagin entered into stage six on friday, 13m36s behind Kabirov, while Loprais started more than 25 minutes behind the leader.
Stage six led from Iquique to Arica, a true monster stage of 456 km, with a lot of navigation, and a sea of endless sand dunes, a stage that stretched the limits of man and machine. For the trucks an extraordinary difficult stage, they had to take huge risks to ensure they didn’t get stuck in the sand dunes with their heavy trucks. Many of them got stuck on the sharp top ridges of the huge sand dunes, and needed help from the service teams or passing competitors to free their truck. Once out of the sand, it was down the dune again, turn around, and try to gain enough speed and momentum to this time hopefully get over the crest at the second attempt. Other trucks rolled over on their side on the steep dunes, and also had to wait for assistance to get their truck back on four wheels again.
Kamaz driver Kabirov was once again faster than Chagin, but it was Loprais’ Tatra that won the stage. Kamaz had so far dominated the rally, and Loprais’ goal is a podium place. “We are just one Tatra here against an army of six trucks from Russia,” the Czech said. “But we will keep on pushing, that’s our goal, we would like to target the podium at least,” he added.
After having lost the two green Tatras of the czechdakarteam, one of the crews seriously injured, in earlier stages, Tatra’s Andre de Azevedo, 6th overall after stage 5, had to retire with mechanical problems.
Saturday’s rest day isn’t a rest day for everyone, while the top drivers can rest, catch some sleep and gather new energy for the next stage, many of the lesser gods have to service their own vehicles, repair broken parts, or shop for spare parts at other teams. Many of the service and backup trucks haven’t made it to Arica, and the Iveco trucks don’t have enough spare parts, as one of the Iveco service trucks went up in flames, and all spare parts were lost too.
The next stage will be on Sunday (today), and goes from Arica to Antofagasta, the longest special stage of the 2011 Dakar Rally. The stage is divided into two timed sections, and there is a special route for the bikes and quads. Many drivers and riders have had little sleep, and had to work hard during the past seven days, but they have one thing in common: they simply do not want to give up, and have set their sight to the arrival in Buenos Aires next week.