Defending champions Stéphane Peterhansel and Jean-Paul Cottret in their Mini ALL4 Racing won the special stage on day two of the 2013 Dakar and moved into the overall lead.
But autosport.com reports that on the day following the stage and the posting of this story the organizers gave the lead to Carlos Sainz, whose Red Bull buggy was first penalized for being late. After an overnight investigation the organizers determined that Sainz had gotten lost because of a problem with the their GPS; originally it was thought that the error was due to Sainz's navigation system.
The special stage, a 242-kilometer loop run featuring challenging sand dunes, began and ended in Pisco, Peru. The Dakar, which began on January 5 with a short stage in Lima, ends in Santiago on January 20.
The leading (make that second place) Mini is one of seven cars entered in the 2013 Dakar by Sven Quandt’s Monster Energy X-Raid Team. Six of the cars are Minis; the seventh is an X3 piloted by Orlando Terranova of Argentina and his Portuguese co-driver Paulo Fiúza.
The X3 was fourth (later reclassified to fifth) at the end of day two behind the leading Red Bull buffy, the Mini, the Toyota Hilux Pickup of Giniel de Villiers and Dirk von Zitzewitz and the SMG Buggy of Ronan Chabot and Gilles Pillot.
Information on the event is available online and on TV. In-depth coverage, including videos and information on the entrants, the route, and the results is available on the Dakar web site. The X-Raid team’s progress can be tracked on its web site, and the NBC Sports Network is providing nightly updates, starting at 2:30 AM eastern time on Monday and continuing at 2:00 AM eastern on subsequent nights.—Brian S. Morgan
