The 2012 Dakar Rally was the 34th running of the event. It was held in South America for the fourth successive time.
Summary By 17 March 2011, Argentine president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner announced that the start would be in Mar del Plata, Argentina, the first stage would end in Bahía Blanca. The course would later cross the provinces of La Pampa, Mendoza, San Juan, La Rioja and Catamarca before crossing to Chile and finally ending in Peru.
On 9 January 2011, Peruvian press announced that Peru would host the three final stages of the 2012 Dakar Rally, with Lima, the Peruvian capital, hosting the awards ceremony.confirms it will host the three final stages of the 2012 Dakar Rally The official announcement took place on 18 February in Paris.press informs official announcement will take place on 16 or 18 February in Paris A map displaying these final stages was also published.
Fatal accidents Near the end of the first stage, motorcycle rider Jorge Andrés Boero died following a crash. It was the 21st death of a competitor in the history of the rally. During stage 2, the ultralight aircraft of a father son duo watching the race crashed. Both died at the scene.
Stages The sixth stage of the rally was cancelled due to heavy rain and snowfalls in the Anden-region near the border of Argentina and Chile.Schneechaos verhindert sechste Etappe
StageDateFromToClassRoad SectionSpecialTotalStage winnerskm mi km mi km miBikesQuadsCarsTrucks11 January Mar del Plata Santa RosaAll7634745735820509 F. López S. Lafuente L. Novitskiy M. van Vliet22 January Santa Rosa San RafaelBikes/Trucks487302295183782486 M. Coma S. Lafuente N. Al-Attiyah G. de RooyCars48730229018077748333 January San Rafael San JuanBikes291180270167561348 C. Despres M. Patronelli N. Roma M. BiasionCars/Trucks29118020812949931044 January San Juan ChilecitoAll424263326202750466 M. Coma T. Maffei S. Peterhansel G. de Rooy55 January Chilecito FiambaláBikes15193265164416258 C. Despres M. Patronelli K. Hołowczyc G. de RooyCars/Trucks24615217711036322566 January Fiambalá CopiapóAll394244247153641398Stage cancelled77 January Copiapó CopiapóAll15495419260573356 M. Coma A. Patronelli N. Al-Attiyah G. de Rooy8 January CopiapóRest day89 January Copiapó AntofagastaAll245152477296722448 M. Coma M. Patronelli N. Roma A. Loprais910 January Antofagasta IquiqueAll95556345565351 H. Rodrigues A. Patronelli R. Gordon M. Biasion1011 January Iquique AricaAll317197377234694431 J. Barreda T. Maffei N. Roma A. Ardavichus1112 January Arica ArequipaBikes171106534331705438 C. Despres A. Patronelli S. Peterhansel A. KarginovCars12074478297598371Trucks120744322685523431213 January Arequipa NazcaBikes259160245152504313 M. Coma M. Patronelli L. Novitskiy G. de RooyCars/Trucks4122562451526574081314 January Nazca PiscoAll10062275170375233 H. Rodrigues T. Maffei S. Peterhansel A. Karginov1415 January Pisco LimaAll2541572918283175 P. A. Ullevålseter T. Maffei R. Leal dos Santos M. Biasion TOTALS km mi km mi km mi Bikes Cars Trucks
Notes: — Robby Gordon forfeited these stage victories due to later losing the appeal for his disqualification after the tenth stage.
Summary
Bikes The competition in the category rapidly developed into a two-horse race between KTM riders Cyril Despres and Marc Coma, who between them had won each previous Dakar event since 2005. It was Coma who seized the advantage initially with a victory on stage two, but a navigational error during the third stage dropped him ten minutes behind Despres. The gap between the pair remained close to the ten-minute mark until Despres lost time by getting stuck in mud during the eighth stage, allowing Coma to re-take the lead. The battle remained extremely close for the following stages, with Coma and Despres exchanging the lead on two further occasions before the outcome of the battle was effectively settled during the thirteenth stage – Coma lost almost an hour to his rival, largely through the result of a 45-minute penalty for an engine change but also due to gearbox issues and further navigational trouble. That allowed Despres to take a comfortable victory over Coma by a margin of 53 minutes, with Yamaha rider Hélder Rodrigues, who had held third position since the fourth stage, a further 18 minutes behind the Spaniard having picked up two stage wins during the event. KTM riders Jordi Viladoms and Štefan Svitko completed the top five, with Pål Anders Ullevålseter, who won the final stage of the event, in sixth position. Francisco Lòpez, who won the opening stage, had been running in fourth but was forced to retire after the seventh stage due to a fall which aggravated a previous knee injury.
Quads Sergio Lafuente took the first two-stage wins before losing an hour during the third stage. That handed the advantage briefly to Alejandro Patronelli, but his countryman Tomas Maffei seized the lead after victory in the fourth stage. However, both Maffei and Marcos Patronelli, brother of Alejandro, both effectively dropped out of contention when both lost considerable ground (54 minutes and 1 hour 20 minutes respectively) during the seventh stage, giving Alejandro Patronelli a lead of almost an hour after winning the stage. He took a further two stage wins en route to a comfortable victory in the overall classification by a margin of 1 hour and 20 minutes. Maffei lost second position in the ninth stage, and would finish in third overall despite winning the last two stages, 54 minutes down on the second of the Patronelli brothers. Completing the all-Yamaha, all-South American top five were Ignacio Casale, six hours adrift of the winning time, and Lafuente, who was another two hours further behind.
Cars With the withdrawal of the Volkswagen Motorsport works team, the first privateer winner since Jean-Louis Schlesser in 2000 was assured. The all-new X-Raid Mini All4 proved immediately competitive, with Leonid Novitskiy winning the first stage, Nani Roma winning the third stage and nine-time Dakar winner Stéphane Peterhansel re-taking the lead of the overall classification after taking victory in the fourth stage. Krzysztof Hołowczyc, also at the wheel of a Mini, held second behind Peterhansel after winning the fifth stage and remained inside the top three until power steering failure during the tenth stage ruled him out of contention.
Roma then became Peterhansel's closest rival, with 19 minutes separating the pair after the Spaniard's win in the tenth stage. Roma would eventually finish the rally in second position, 40 minutes down on his teammate after getting stuck in sand dunes on the penultimate stage, with Peterhansel taking his tenth Dakar victory after adding to his stage win tally during the penultimate stage. 2009 winner Giniel de Villiers, driving a Toyota Hilux, finished a distant third overall, 32 minutes behind Roma, having failed to win any stages. Novitskiy was classified in fourth position after winning stage twelve, albeit over two hours behind Peterhansel.
It was an event to forget for defending champion Nasser Al-Attiyah. He lost nine minutes during the first stage after his Hummer's engine lost oil pressure. The Qatari went on to win the second stage, but lost over half an hour to Peterhansel in the fourth stage; winning the seventh stage had seen Al-Attiyah recover to sixth place before engine and alternator problems during the ninth stage warranted his retirement. Teammate Robby Gordon was at this stage just five minutes behind Peterhansel with a win on the ninth stage, but the gap increased to 20 minutes when the American hit a rock on the tenth stage. An illegal modification to his Hummer's engine then saw Gordon disqualified, though he continued to compete under appeal for the remainder of the rally. He would have finished fifth in the overall classification with three further stage wins, Toyota driver Lucio Alvarez inheriting the position as a result of Gordon losing the appeal.
Trucks Never outside the top two of the overall classification, the event was dominated by Iveco driver Gérard de Rooy. After finishing second to fellow Dutch competitor Marcel van Vliet in the opening stage, de Rooy won the second to lead the overall classification and re-took the lead after victory in the fourth stage. He consolidated his lead with two more successive stage victories, opening a 15-minute advantage over Aleš Loprais before the Tatra driver was forced to retire after an accident in the non-timed section of the ninth stage. De Rooy then held a 47-minute advantage over teammate Hans Stacey, a gap he extended to 51 minutes by the end of the event with a final stage victory in the twelfth stage. Stacey secured second in the overall standings despite not having won any stages, with Artur Ardavichus the best of the Kamaz entries in third position – 1 hour and 47 minutes down on de Rooy with victory in the tenth stage to his credit.
Eduard Nikolaev, taking over as de facto Kamaz team leader after the retirement of Vladimir Chagin and Firdaus Kabirov, was excluded for an incident with a competitor in the car category during the fourth stage. Kamaz drivers Andrey Karginov, who won the eleventh stage, and Ilgizar Mardeev completed the top five. Former World Rally champion Miki Biasion was running third before losing over six hours during a torrid seventh stage, though the Italian won two more stages (to add to his victory on the third stage) en route to recovering to sixth place overall.
Stage results
Bikes Stage result General classification Stage PosCompetitorMakeTimeDifference PosCompetitorMakeTimeDifference11 Francisco LópezAprilia32:371 Francisco LópezAprilia32:372 Marc ComaKTM32:510:142 Marc ComaKTM32:510:143 Javier PizzolitoHonda33:040:273 Javier PizzolitoHonda33:040:2721 Marc ComaKTM3:07:311 Marc ComaKTM3:40:122 Cyril DespresKTM3:08:391:182 Francisco LòpezAprilia3:42:422:303 Joan BarredaHusqvarna3:09:542:333 Cyril DespresKTM3:43:042:5231 Cyril DespresKTM3:48:381 Cyril DespresKTM7:31:422 Frans VerhoevenSherco3:57:158:372 Marc ComaKTM7:41:5410:123 Paulo GonçalvesHusqvarna3:57:178:393 David CasteuYamaha7:48:5817:1641 Marc ComaKTM4:16:431 Cyril DespresKTM11:50:272 Cyril DespresKTM4:18:542:022 Marc ComaKTM11:58:378:103 Frans VerhoevenSherco4:25:098:263 Hélder RodriguesYamaha12:17:1526:4851 Cyril DespresKTM2:28:331 Cyril DespresKTM14:19:002 Marc ComaKTM2:30:141:412 Marc ComaKTM14:28:519:513 Joan BarredaHusqvarna2:41:1512:423 Hélder RodriguesYamaha15:06:5647:566Stage cancelled71 Marc ComaKTM3:51:351 Cyril DespresKTM18:12:382 Cyril DespresKTM3:53:382:032 Marc ComaKTM18:20:267:483 Paulo GonçalvesHusqvarna3:54:242:493 Hélder RodriguesYamaha19:02:1749:3981 Marc ComaKTM5:03:521 Marc ComaKTM23:24:182 Pål Anders UllevålseterKTM5:05:471:552 Cyril DespresKTM23:25:441:263 Ruben FariaHusqvarna5:10:527:003 Hélder RodriguesYamaha24:13:1949:0191 Hélder RodriguesYamaha5:16:171 Cyril DespresKTM28:45:172 Cyril DespresKTM5:19:333:162 Marc ComaKTM28:47:452:283 Štefan SvitkoKTM5:20:254:353 Hélder RodriguesYamaha29:29:3644:19101 Joan BarredaHusqvarna4:18:431 Cyril DespresKTM33:07:392 Marc ComaKTM4:20:151:322 Marc ComaKTM33:08:000:213 Cyril DespresKTM4:22:223:393 Hélder RodriguesYamaha33:53:3545:56111 Cyril DespresKTM4:03:371 Cyril DespresKTM37:11.162 Gerard FarrésKTM4:05:161:392 Marc ComaKTM37:13:382:223 Marc ComaKTM4:05:382:013 Hélder RodriguesYamaha38:19:561:34:56121 Marc ComaKTM2:24:381 Marc ComaKTM39:38:162 Joan BarredaHusqvarna2:27:212:432 Cyril DespresKTM39:39:511:353 Jordi ViladomsKTM2:27:483:103 Hélder RodriguesYamaha40:52:051:13:49131 Hélder RodriguesYamaha3:21:161 Cyril DespresKTM43:01:542 Cyril DespresKTM3:22:030:472 Marc ComaKTM43:57:570:56:033 Jordi ViladomsKTM3:24:163:003 Hélder RodriguesYamaha44:13:211:11:27141 Pål Anders UllevålseterKTM0:22:261 Cyril DespresKTM43:28:112 Marc ComaKTM00:23:3401:082 Marc ComaKTM44:21:310:53:203 Štefan SvitkoKTM00:24:0901:433 Hélder RodriguesYamaha44:39:281:11:17
Quads