Peterhansel moved by his victory at the 2013 Dakar

Stéphane Peterhansel was freed from the pressure of Nasser Al-Attiyah's Buggy when the Qatari retired in the ninth stage. The Team X-Raid driver found himself at the head of the Dakar with 50 minutes ahead of the Toyota Hilux by Giniel de Villiers. With five days remaining, the Frenchman no longer had any reason to take risks and he reached the finish in Santiago, Chile, maintaining a lead of 42 minutes over the South African. The Mini All4 Racing driver scored his 11th victory in the event and wanted to dedicate his success to Jean-Claude Olivier, the former director of Yamaha France who recently died in a road accident. “It’s a special moment: a lot of emotions and tension during two weeks of racing, and all the pressure suddenly drops”, declared the winner, whose comments are reported on the official Dakar website. “I have a thought for Jean-Claude Olivier, who left us last week. He taught me everything, so the second week was tough because I was thinking about it the whole time. Now I dedicate this victory to him, and we will still try to take advantage of it. »

In terms of competition, Stéphane Peterhansel also wanted to highlight the X-Raid team which provided him with a car of flawless reliability, unlike the Qatar Buggys. Red Bull Rally Team who gave up following mechanical damage which can be explained by the young team member. “A race is never won in advance. The team did a great job. We never stopped, never worried about the mechanics. We only had one thing to do, and that was to drive as fast as possible. On the other hand, my co-pilot Jean-Paul (Cottret, the co-pilot) did a great job of navigation. We never had to take our foot off the gas. The pace has always been strong, apart from the last two or three days when we started to manage. Since I've been driving a car, this is the first time we've done a race without having a technical problem. It's the best car I've ever used. »

Discover the next report from our special correspondent on the Dakar 2013 in the next issue of AUTOhebdo, available from Tuesday in digital version for iPad, PC and Mac, and from Wednesday on newsstands.