DAKAR. 443 vehicles take part in the 2012 Dakar, which start today from Mar del Plata and head towards Lima, where the pilots will arrive following an 8,300-kilometre trek through Argentinean, Chilean and Peruvian territory. The battle for the four titles at stake is about to begin.

309 LEAL DOS SANTOS Ricardo (PRT) FIUZA Paulo (PRT) MINI ALL4 RACING Podium départ, 31/12/11, Photo Credit: ERIC VARGIOLU / DPPI

CHALECO IS BACK TO HIS WINNING WAYS AND THE MINIS MEET THE EXPECTATIONS
Santa Rosa de la Pampa, the 1st January 2012

After spending most of the year injured, Francisco López took the first stage of the 2012 Dakar in the motorcycle category and now leads a provisional top 5 which represents a break with tradition. Argentina's Javier Pizzolito (19th last year) finished third. In the truck category, Marcel van Vliet repeats his 2009 exploit by winning the first stage.

1 COMA MARC (ESP) KTM 450 CC, 01/01/12, Photo Credit: FREDERIC LE FLOCH / DPPI

Among all the race favourites, Francisco López is the one who has done the most to keep a low profile. But now that the chips are down, it is he who banged his fist on the table harder than anyone else. The Chilean rider sustained a hard fall in last spring's Rally of Tunisia. His bone fractures meant that the Dakar seemed a distant, even uncertain prospect. After going under the knife on six different occasions, the recovering López was able to start the Pharaons Rally, which he finished in the 36th position. Therefore, during the scrutineering process, "Chaleco" merely emphasised how happy he was just to be able to start the Dakar. But after the first few twists of the right handle, in the short, 57-kilometre-long special stage, he simply cracked the time set by Marc Coma a bit earlier. This was despite the Spaniard's good memories: he had already won on the road to Santa Rosa in the opening stage of the 2009 Dakar. But this time round, López took his sixth stage win in the rally, which lifts him to the top of a never-seen-before general classification.

Hot on the heels of Marc Coma comes Javier Pizzolito, who posted the 3rd best time in today's stage. Pizzolito is promised a warm welcome in Santa Rosa once he has completed the 620-kilometre liaison. He has just turned in the strongest performance by an Argentinean rider at the Dakar! He lies just ahead of "miracle man" Quinn Cody, whose motorcycle took a detour through Lima just before reaching Mar del Plata in the nick of time, 4th at 30", while young Jakub Przygonsky rounds off today's Top 5, 49" behind "Chaleco". Cyril Despres lost 1'48".

Updates on the car category: although the likelihood of a Mini win was obvious to even the least knowledgeable of pundits, the identity of the winner is slightly surprising. The length of today's stage means that performances here are not too representative, but Leonid Novitskiy exploited his best driving skills to seize his first special stage win at the Dakar. The 2011 Rally Raid World Champion started 13th and pipped his teammates Krzysztof Holowzyc and Stéphane Peterhansel at the finishing line, besting them by 5" and 9" respectively. At the end of the day, X-Raid has three Minis at the top of the classification, ahead of Giniel de Villiers, who posted a strong performance in the Dakar debut of his Toyota Hilux.

312 NOVITSKIY LEONID (RUS) 312 SCHULZ ANDREAS (DEU) MINI ALL4 RACING, 01/01/12, Photo Credit : FREDERIC LE FLOCH / DPPI

Things are getting much more complicated for Nasser Al-Attiyah, racing for the first time at the wheel of a Hummer today. Although his time deficit of 9'45" to Novitskiy is not too significant, the reliability of his vehicle is quite worrying. 2 km away from the end of the special stage, his H3 ground to a halt due to problems with oil pressure and the Qatari driver had no choice but to be towed to the finish by teammate Robby Gordon. In the surprises and disappointments department, the failure of the day was that of Alfie Cox, whose Dakar came to an end before he could even reach the finish of the special stage. The former motorcycle rider from South Africa had built an ambitious project with Team Pewano, but he burned the Volvo XC-60 he was taking to the Dakar for the first time. The crew escaped the fire safe and sound but the car was totally destroyed by the flames.

As for the quads, Sergio La Fuente finished the Dakar 2011 with the satisfaction of clinching 14th, and dead last, in the general classification. He marked his return to the race by posting the best time in the special – never before had a Uruguayan won a stage in the rally. He can also be proud of beating the 2010 Dakar champion Marcos Patronelli by 54", with Tomás Maffei lurking in third, 1'07" back.

253 LASKAWIEC LUKASZ (POL) YAMAHA RAPTOR 700, 01/01/12, Photo Credit: FREDERIC LE FLOCH / DPPI

In the truck category, one has to go very far back to find a stage without a single Kamaz in the top six. Marcel van Vliet, who was clearly targeting the opening stage, took his second Dakar stage victory after winning the first stage of the 2009 Dakar... in Santa Rosa. This time round he bested Gerard de Rooy by 26" and Franz Echter by 56". Most importantly, there are now three Iveco trucks in the Top 5, with Miki Biaison and Hans Stacey staying close to their teammate in this same order

STAGE1: MAR DEL PLATA SANTA ROSA, 1ST OF JANUARY

Today at 10:19 am, Argentinean rider Jorge Andres Martinez Boero (motorcycle no. 175) was the victim of a fall at km 55 of the special of the first stage between Mar del Plata and Santa Rosa. The rider suffered a cardiac arrest following his fall and was attended five minutes after the accident by the medical staff, who reached the place of the incident by helicopter. The doctors were unable to resuscitate the pilot, who died while he was being taken to hospital.
38-year-old Jorge Andres Martinez Boero was taking part in his second Dakar. In 2011, he withdrew from the rally during the sixth stage.
The organisers of the rally offer their heartfelt condolences to his family and loved ones.

Dakar 2012 / A.S.O.
January 01, 2012

LET THE RACE BEGIN!

At this time of the year, beaches in "La Feliz" are packed with holidaymakers every day. But today, all eyes are focused on Plaza Colón, a bit further from the sea, where a podium has been set up for the presentation of the teams to the public before the race. This ceremony is usually held before tens of thousands of spectators, who have 443 vehicles to marvel at and applaud this year. Despite the festive ambiance in the city, the atmosphere must feel quite chilly for a handful of competitors who will have to forget their ambitions. Indeed, seven quads failed the technical checks, since they were too different from the production models they were supposed to represent. "Prototypes" are not allowed in this category! Although they will be allowed to participate, Josef Machacek (5-time winner), Lukasz Laskawiec (3rd in 2011), Christophe Declerck (4th in 2011), Rafal Sonik, Antoine Leconte, Norberto Cangani and Maciej Albinowski are no longer eligible for the general classification. The path to victory seems clear for the Patronelli brothers, or at least for a battle among South Americans.

1 COMA MARC (ESP) KTM 450 CC 2 DESPRES CYRIL (FRA) KTM 450CC RALLY 3 RODRIGUES HELDER (PRT) YAMAHA WRF 450 Podium départ, 31/12/11, Photo Credit: ERIC VARGIOLU / DPPI

Although their fate is yet to be decided, four motorcycle riders are also in a situation which will probably make them smile in a few days' time, but which is giving them quite a few headaches at the moment. Iain Stevenson, Neil Scott-Thomas, Darryl Curtis and Greg Raaf's motorcycles were delayed on their trip from the United States. As of December 31, the ship carrying them has only reached Delta Dock, roughly 500 km from Mar del Plata. In order to give them a chance to win this first time trial, the organisers decided to make headway with the administrative part of their scrutineering and call for help from the Argentinean authorities to speed up customs procedures, but seeing these four riders at the starting line is not a done deal. The deputy manager of the rally, David Castera, has asked them to be ready for tomorrow morning at 5 am if they are able to bring in their motorcycles for a simplified technical scrutineering process.

The four victims of sea transport misadventures would be happy just to start the race, but other pilots are already thinking about the top step of the podium in Lima. Among them are Cyril Despres and Marc Coma, who walked around the aisles of the scrutineering area clad in identical orange shirts. Their relaxed mood and companionship contrasts with the tense relationship they have had over the last few years, and the defending champion shows he wants to keep things that way: "Things have calmed down a lot between us, I think it is much better to start the race in this state of mind." In the car category, Nasser Al-Attiyah has also teamed up with a former rival, Robby Gordon, who has put him at the wheel of a Hummer H3 decorated with the colours of Qatar. He will probably have to beat a former teammate if he wants to mount a successful title defence: at the wheel of his Mini, it looks like Stéphane Peterhansel has got what he needs to finally take his 10th win after years of trying.

THE PRESSURE STARTS TO BUILD

During the second day of scrutineering, pride of place was given to the trucks, with the appearance of the Kamaz and De Rooy teams, predicted to be rivalling each other for triumph in Lima. In the car and bike categories, the main outsiders on the rally laid out their strategies.

“It's impressive, it almost looks like a floating bivouac,” joked Etienne Lavigne as he strolled down the waterfront of ‘Mardel', as the Argentines call it. Between the bathing huts and the naval base, which is hosting the administrative and technical scrutineering, a jetty plays host to a vast waiting area, where the competitors have set up to carry out final adjustments to their vehicles. Early morning visitors could have come across the trucks of the De Rooy, Kamaz, Tatra and Man teams, ready to get stuck into a fierce battle for victory. Soon after, however, they headed to the scrutineering stands, to submit themselves to the compulsory tests. Conversations with drivers and observers pointed to the fact that this year, the truck category is more open than ever. The retirements of Chagin and Kabirov (with 9 titles between them) are a significant reason, even if their replacements Nikolaev and the young Mardeev are very promising. The competition is both technically adept and confident, as shown by Micki Biasion, the third element of a dream team led by Gerard De Rooy and Hans Stacey: “To beat the Kamaz team, you need a team made up of several very competitive trucks,” says the two times world rally champion. “This year, De Rooy has managed to do just that, so there is a genuine opportunity of victory”. Aware of how true this analysis is, Ales Loprais is displaying more modest ambitions, but it should not be forgotten that he also managed to beat the Kamaz trucks on the Silk Way Rally: “Our team is not at their level, so I'm going to settle for picking up stage wins”.

The demonstrations of power were therefore to be found in the truck category for the second day of scrutineering, but some party spoilers in the car category were especially keenly expected, starting with Christian Lavieille, waxing lyrical on the qualities of the Proto 011 Dessoude that he aims to place in the Top 5, as he vaguely hinted: “There's no question of me putting any pressure on myself, even if many drivers have had a keen eye on the new car”. As regards the bikes, Despres and Coma will be centre stage tomorrow, but their main challengers had plenty to say today. Their comments mainly concerned the penalties that will be handed out for each engine change. Frans Verhoeven is placing his trust in the brand new Sherco to grab a Top 5 finish and even set out a very precise road map to achieving this goal: “We are going to use two engines, because I believe that nobody amongst the favourites will manage to finish the rally on one single engine. I'm planning to change it after 8 days of the race”. The strategy is similar for Jakub Przygonsky, 2nd in the world championships this season: “I think that everyone will replace the 1st engine and nobody will replace the 2nd. So it doesn't change a thing”. As for David Casteu, leading rider in the Yamaha France team, his remarks seemed to be a mix of opinion and bluff: “We will very probably change it once, but the engine is capable of holding out for the whole Dakar. It managed to clock up 12,000 km during the tests!” At the end of the day, one of the major players in the discipline however seemed to be totally disinterested by this year's hot topic. The crash which left Francisco “Chaleco” Lopez with multiple fractures last spring has encouraged him to go back to basics: “I don't have any strategy at all and no ambitions. I'm just happy to be here, after what happened to me. I'd like to see Lima”. Just like all the riders, drivers and co-pilots who will be taking starter's orders on the rally on Sunday morning!

A SANDY ACCENT FOR SCRUTINEERING

The relaxed atmosphere adopted by holiday-makers in "La Feliz" did not totally rub off on the riders and drivers of the Dakar 2012, which will start on 1st January. In Mar del Plata, the competitors summoned for the first day of scrutineering proved to be focused on their goal: Lima, which the best amongst them will reach on 15th January.

It is not a stage, but a compulsory step on the road towards the race. Among the riders and drivers on the Dakar, the tension was genuinely palpable in the aisles through the various phases of technical and administrative scrutineering. For one or two days, most of them have enjoyed the pleasures of Mar del Plata, the seaside resort popular with holiday-makers from Buenos Aires. However, after tasting a tenderloin or top loin steak according to taste, and a morning jog on the beach for many of them, it was high time to get to the heart of the matter. From dawn onwards, the naval base opened its gates to the riders and drivers. As chance would have it, the first to appear was the youngest competitor on the rally: Argentinean Lucas Bonetto, from Ushuaia, who has just turned 20 years of age. With a promising future ahead of him, the recently-crowned Argentinean quad champion has a ready source of inspiration in the Patronelli brothers, with whom he may have crossed paths later in the day. Alejandro, the title holder, and Marcos, the winner in 2010, have become the leading lights in motorsport in their home country. Their performances along the rally tracks have won them the affection of an entire population, along with the respect of all the riders in the category. The state of play in this category is likely to change with a reduction in engine power included in the rules this year: “I prefer the restrictions”, says Alejandro nonetheless. “Handling a 900cc is harder, more tiring. In any case, this race is not a conventional race. First and foremost it's a major journey and a massive challenge”.

Aside from the quads, the favourites for the various titles up for grabs are expected a little later in the schedule. However, the first day still enabled the spectators and journalists present to gauge the ambition of some of the outsiders in the bike category, starting with Jordi Viladoms, who has recently left Yamaha for a new Italian team, Bordone-Ferrari. The apparent youth of his team has not made the slightest change to the objectives of the Spaniard, who for a long time was Marc Coma's water carrier. “There are five of us in with a chance of winning. I think the creation of penalties for changing engines will be a decisive factor. Perhaps some riders will be able to complete the rally with a single engine, but among the favourites, few of them will”. Indeed, the threat of a 15-minute addition in the standings (45' for the 2nd engine change) was at the heart of discussions. Pal-Anders Ullevalseter, 2nd in 2010 behind Cyril Despres, was more reserved about the capacity to complete 8,300 km without blowing an engine, but does not have any worries about the fight for the podium: “In my opinion, nobody will be able to finish with a single engine, but even with 45 minutes of penalties, it's still possible to finish near the top of the rankings. In any case, I can't wait to cross the mountains and get stuck into a good dose of desert”.

The Norwegian's appetite for sand is shared by all of the competitors, whether beginners, unknowns or favourites. Tomorrow, the pretenders for the title in the truck category will be present: the Kamaz trucks of Nikolaev and Mardeev junior, the Ivecos of De Rooy, Stacey and Biasion and the Tatra of Ales Loprais. In the car category, the stands will be welcoming Christian Lavieille (Dessoude) or Bernhard Ten Brinke (Riwald). On two wheels, it will be the turn of Francisco Lopez (Aprilia), Paulo Gonçalves (Husqvarna) or Quinn Cody (Honda) to undergo the scrutineering circuit.

Dakar 2012 / A.S.O.
December 31, 2011

Podium départ du DAKAR 2012, Photo de groupe motard et quad Podium départ, 31/12/11, ERIC VARGIOLU / DPPI