Stephane Peterhansel looks set for an eleventh Dakar Rally victory after maintaining a 50-minute lead over the Imperial Toyota of Giniel de Villers during Stage 12 of the rally, which was won by Nani Roma.
By going fastest yesterday, Nani Roma moved up to third place overall, while X-Raid teammate Leonid Novitskiy dropped back to fourth.
Robby Gordon‘s good performance resumed as he went second quickest to become 16th overall, with Giniel de Villiers third, just over a minute faster than Peterhansel.
Overall standings after Stage twelve:
Pos Driver Team/Car Time/Gap 1. Stephane Peterhansel X-raid Mini 32h50m02s 2. Giniel de Villiers Imperial Toyota + 50m21s 3. Nani Roma X-raid Mini + 1h31m06s 4. Leonid Novitskiy X-raid Mini + 1h34m47s 5. Orlando Terranova X-raid BMW + 2h01m50s 6. Carlos Sousa Great Wall + 2h39m46s 7. Ronan Chabot SMG Buggy + 3h03m11s 8. Guerlain Chicherit SMG Buggy + 3h42m51s 9. Pascal Thomasse MD Buggy + 4h14m26s 10. Geoff Olholm Overdrive Toyota + 4h29m11s