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Dakar: Peterhansel Wins Again In 2013, Olholm First Aussie Home In 43 Hours

The MINI of Frenchmen Stéphane Peterhansel and Jean-Paul Cottret claimed outright victory in the 2013 Dakar Rally at the weekend, repeating their 2012 win for the German X-raid Team in the Countryman-based MINI ALL4 Racing model. The win was


The MINI of Frenchmen Stéphane Peterhansel and Jean-Paul Cottret claimed outright victory in the 2013 Dakar Rally at the weekend, repeating their 2012 win for the German X-raid Team in the Countryman-based MINI ALL4 Racing model.

The win was Peterhansel’s 11th class victory in the notorious event - his fifth Auto category win after six earlier crowns on two wheels.

Second outright was the Toyota HiLux of 2009-winner Giniel De Villiers and his co-driver Dirk von Zitzewitz, crossing the line with an overall time just 42 minutes shy of Peterhansel’s 38:32:39 winning figure.

Peterhansel’s X-raid teammates Leonid Novistkiy/Konstantin Zhiltskov rounded off the outright podium with an overall time 1 hour, 28 minutes behind Peterhansel - while further X-raid teammates Juan (Nani) Roma/Michel Perin crossed the finish just 8 minutes later to claim fourth.

The top-placed Australian driver to complete the 8600km event between Peru, Argentina and Chile was Geoff Olholm, who teamed with UK co-driver Jonathan Aston to finish 11th in the Auto category, with their HiLux crossing the line 4:46:13 behind Peterhansel.

Olholm finished just 25 seconds behind the tenth-in-class Argentinian pairing of Lucio Alvarez and Bernardo Graue.

Sydney-based team Isuzu Motorsports ended their 2013 Dakar assault with mixed results, with the historic pairing of Bruce Garland and Harry Suzuki forced to retire their 2012 Isuzu D-MAX on Day 12 with engine troubles caused by polluted fuel.

Garland and Suzuki had hoped to better their career-best 11th outright placing in the 2009 event with their first return since crashing out in 2011, having missed the 2012 event due to Garland requiring quintuple heart bypass surgery.

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