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Dakar: ‘Peter' cruises on

Stephane Peterhansel maintained his lead in the Dakar Rally after Tuesday's 11th stage, despite seeing his two closest rivals beat him on the long run from Atar to Kiffa

The Mitsubishi driver saw Volkswagen's Jutta Kleinschmidt take overall honours in her Volkswagen Race Touareg with a one minute and four seconds victory over Mitsubishi's Luc Alphand. It was the first stage win that Kleinschmidt has taken this year.

Although Peterhansel trailed home in third place, two minutes and 42 seconds behind Kleinschmidt, he appeared far from concerned. His current lead over Alphand in the event stands at almost 20 minutes, and he enjoys more than an hour's head-start on third placed Kleinschmidt.

The stage from Atar to Kiffa had to be shortened by the event's organisers because of poor weather conditions making driving conditions very difficult. With the run expected to be one of the toughest special stages of the event anyway, it was decided it would be better to shorten the stage from 656km down to 400km.

There was little to celebrate at the end of the day, however, when events were overshadowed by the tragic death of two-times Dakar motorcycle winner Fabrizio Meoni, who was killed after an accident on stage 11.



Peterhansel/Cottret (Mitsubishi V60), 33h41m14s
Alphand/Picard (Mitsubishi Pajero Evo), 34h01m04s
Kleinschmidt/Pons (VW Touareg), 34h49m17s
de Villiers/Lurquin (Nissan Pickup), 37h51m48s
Roma/Magne (Mitsubishi Pajero Evo), 42h11m48s
Saby/Perin (Volkswagen Touareg), 42h19m36s

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