Peterhansel, Despres near podium in Dakar Rally

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Peterhansel, Despres near podium in Dakar Rally

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Stephane Peterhansel and Cyril Despres are close to win another Dakar Rally.

15 January,2012 04:52 am

Stephane Peterhansel and Cyril Despres have virtually won another Dakar Rally with strong finishes in the penultimate 13th stage on Saturday.Peterhansel of France, who has won the Dakar nine times, took Saturdays 275-kilometre (171-mile) special in his Mini 8:29 ahead of the Toyota of 2009 winner Giniel De Villiers of South Africa.In the overall, Peterhansel is 42:57 ahead of Mini teammate Joan Roma of Spain.In motorbikes, Helder Rodrigues of Portugal won the stage 47 seconds ahead of Despres.Despres has won Dakar three times and leads defending champion Marc Coma of Spain by 11:03 overall. Rodrigues is third, a whopping 1:11:27 behind.