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 | Dos Sertões: X-raid´s Stéphane Peterhansel current leader in front of Spinelli.
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The German X-raid Team made a successful start into the second half of the "Rally dos Sertões" held actually in Brazil. French pairing Stéphane Peterhansel / Jean-Paul Cottret won both the fifth and sixth special stages, with their Mini All4 Racing, thus regaining the overall lead. While the Brazilians Riamburgo Ximenes and Flavio França worked their way up to third position, with their X-raid BMW X3CC.
And Peterhansel is not only the overall leader but holds an impressive 12-minute lead over the previous leader, Brazilian Guilherme Spinelli. In the fifth special stage, from Carolina to Palmas, the Mini Racing driver was more than seven minutes faster than his rival, thus stealing the Brazilian’s overall lead.
On the following day, on the way to Alto Paraiba, the Monster Energy X-raid driver clinched his next special-stage win and extended his lead by another four minutes.
Meanwhile, BMW X3 CC driver Riamburgo Ximenes lost valuable minutes in the fifth special stage and finished fifth. In the sixth special stage, however, the Brazilian struck back by finishing second behind his team-mate Peterhansel, thus working their way back up to third position in the overall standings.
The sixth special stage had to be shortened at short notice. The organisers had planned a refuelling stop during the 468-kilometre special stage but the fuel wasn’t supplied and so, the race control had to react.
Between the sixth and the seventh special stage, the drivers once again have to without the support of their teams’ service crews. The competitors still have to contest another four stages before they will arrive – on 28th August – at the finish in Fortaleza.
Overall standings after six stages
01) Peterhansel / Cottret (F) I X-Raid Mini All4 I 15:48:37
02) Spinelli / Haddad (BRA) I Mitsubishi Racing Lancer I 16:00:27
03) Ximenes / França (BRA) I X-raid BMW X3 CC I 16:44:19
04) Bibas / Cavassin (BRA) I Evoque Rally I 17:14:01
05) Moraes / Pedroso (BRA) I T-Rex I 17:53:53
2012/08/25 | 15:28 CET | ARTICLE: MR/HS/X-RAID
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