Robby Gordon has set the fastest time of all on the penultimate stage of the 2013 Dakar Rally and moved to 14th place overall, while overall leader Stephane Peterhansel took a more cautious approach to finish the stage in ninth place, 14 minutes behind.
Stephane Peterhansel is now within reach of an 11th Dakar victory; he leads rally by 43 minutes with just one stage left.
Guerlain Chicherit gave Robby Gordon a run for his money on Friday’s stage as both drivers battled for the quickest time; the American ultimately beat his rival to the stage victory by a slight 22-second gap.
After losing third place to his X-Raid Mini teammate, Leonid Novitskiy retook the final podium spot from Nani Roma following early trouble for the Spanish driver; the duo are now separated by 11 minutes.
Pos Driver Team/Car Time/Gap 1. Stephane Peterhansel X-raid Mini 36h44m46s 2. Giniel de Villiers Imperial Toyota + 44m38s 3. Leonid Novitskiy X-raid Mini + 1h29m31s 4. Nani Roma X-raid Mini + 1h40m26s 5. Orlando Terranova X-raid BMW + 1h52m40s 6. Carlos Sousa Great Wall + 2h38m40s 7. Ronan Chabot SMG Buggy + 3h02m25s 8. Guerlain Chicherit SMG Buggy + 3h29m22s 9. Pascal Thomasse MD Buggy + 4h31m49s 10. Boris Garafulic X-raid Mini + 4h45m58s