American Robby Gordon won the 13th stage of the Dakar Rally on Friday, while Frenchman Stephane Peterhansel kept his commanding lead in the overall standings with one day to go.
Gordon was 22 seconds ahead of Guerlain Chicherit of France in the cars category, while Peterhansel finished nearly 14 minutes off the pace.
Peterhansel is still nearly certain to win his 11th Dakar title barring any mishap, as he leads the overall car standings by 44 minutes, 38 seconds ahead of Giniel de Villieres of South Africa. Other competitors are more than an hour behind. The rally finishes Saturday.
In motorbikes, defending champion Cyril Despres closed in on his fifth Dakar title. Despres leads KTM teammate Francisco Lopez of Chile by 8:15 in the overall, and is 14:14 up on another KTM rider Ruben Faria of Portugal.
“Since I ate quite a bit of dust in the morning, I preferred to make sure and take it easy,” Despres said. “As for celebrating, we still have 220 kilometres to the bivouac today (Friday) and with 690 kilometres tomorrow, it’s not going to be a walk in the park.”
Lopez won Friday’s stage, with Despres 5:25 behind.