Dakar: The 2011 champion wakes up

Nasser Al Attiyah, Qatar’s driver of a Hummer, won the second stage of the Rally Dakar 2012, followed by French Stéphane Peterhansel (Mini), who was left in the second place and climbed to the top of overall.

United States’ Robby Gordon (Hummer) ended up third and Spain’s Joan “Nani” Roma (Mini) was fifth, 4 minutes and 15 seconds after Al Attiyah in a 295 kilometres route from Santa Rosa to San Rafael.

Stage by stage, the Dakar is increasing its difficulty level and today’s route had a first part of hard trams and it ended at Nihuil dunes.

South African Giniel De Villiers (Toyota) was sixth and Russian Leonid Novitskiy (Mini), winner of the first stage, ended up eighth, more than 12 minutes after Qatar’s driver.

Argentine driver Orlando Terranova (Toyota) had mechanic problems and is with the car stopped 30 kilometres from the final tram.

The overall board shows Peterhansel in the first place with 2 minutes and 28 seconds from Gordon. Polish Krzysztof Holowczyc (Mini) is in the fourth place and Roma follows him in the fifth place.

The third stage will have 499 kilometres between San Rafael and San Juan.