Dakar – Nani Roma takes on the 12th stage

Nani Roma and Robby Gordon were battling for first place in the 12th stage offering a 319km timed course, with a 715km stage between Fiambala and Copiapo. The Team X-Raid driver attacked at the end of the stage to cross the finish line with a lead of more than four minutes over the American's Hummer. Giniel de Villiers completes the leading trio just seven seconds behind Robby Gordon. Stéphane Peterhansel plays it safe, the leader of the event preferring to maintain his position by finishing six minutes behind the reference time just ahead of the BMW X3 of Orlando Terranova.

Lucio Alvarez (Toyota) and Carlos Sousa (Great Wall) are the last drivers less than ten minutes from the best time. Ronan Chabot is ten minutes behind his Buggy SMG while Leonid Novitskiy puts in a disappointing performance, finishing 15 minutes behind his direct rival in the general classification. Guerlain Chicherit had a disastrous day, the SMG driver losing almost 50 minutes on the lead of the race after encountering transmission problems forcing him to stop.

Stéphane Peterhansel maintains a lead of 50 minutes over the Toyota of Giniel de Villiers. Nani Roma now completes the provisional podium, 1h31 behind the leader of the race. The Spaniard is now ahead of his teammate Leonid Novitskiy by just over three minutes. Orlando Terranova's BMW X3 still completes the top five, less than half an hour behind Team X-Raid's third Mini. Carlos Sousa follows in sixth place on his Great Wall ahead of the two SMG Buggys of Ronan Chabot and Guerlain Chicherit, who loses a position to his teammate following his mechanical problems.

The crews will leave tomorrow to complete a 735km route between Copiapo and La Serena. The drivers will compete in a 441km special divided into two sectors, the first taking place in the dunes while the second will be smoother with stone tracks. The 13th stage will offer the final difficulties of the Dakar.