Today was one of the most difficult stages I have ever experienced. I ended up in a swallow hole trying to avoid a motorcycle rider who fell in front of me. Luckily, Ricardo dos Santos got me out of there, although we were stuck in the whole for quite a while. We are still 22 minutes ahead of Giniel, but he also got stuck in this hole. I later lost some time on a waypoint I spent a lot of time looking for, which cost me over 12 kilometres. But it was my fault for losing my focus. But we are here, and that is not half bad. This is the Dakar. 
We saw that the sand was soft right away, so we deflated the tyres a bit and I saw that Stephane seemed to be stuck in a hole. A bit later, I inflated the tyres and then it was my turn to get stuck in a hole. In the end, we went through the dunes with very little air in the tyres because one of the tyres came of its rim. I opened the tracks in the dunes and it just goes to show that you also need a bit of luck. At the end, Stephane overtook me, but I'm happy to have finished. I think the rest of the cars will finish very late this evening. 
I had two bikers ahead of me and a small dune and one of them fell in front of me, so I was stuck for two minutes, but it's not too bad. I didn't lose too much time, perhaps two minutes. Everything is ok, we're happy to be here now and with Stephane, we drove a very good race. I don't know if I have a chance because Stephane is quite far ahead. But I'm happy for all the team. There are twenty minutes between us and you can lose that much when you get really stuck in the sand. It can happen to anybody, but when I say that I'm not thinking about Stephane. With the experience that he has, he's someone who doesn't make many mistakes. In fact, I'm not counting on what the others do. I prefer to try and do my best by myself to finish in a good position in Lima. 
The stage was good. Winning again is good motivation. For me, it's just another win, but it's really motivating for the guys who are working on the car. It's good for Mini and it's good for X-Raid. In any case, I'm very happy, but my aim is not to win stages. I'm looking at the bigger picture and I want to finish in Lima in the best position possible. For the moment, there are no instructions. It's important to do things correctly like we have done up to today. Stephane (Peterhansel) is 18 minutes ahead of me, which is a bit far, but you have to believe and drive like we have been doing since the start. 
No mistakes were allowed in this fast stage. I pulled out all the stops in the second part. I drove like this for 15 to 20 kilometres and then there was a turn. Then it was back to putting the pedal on the metal for 20 more kilometres. I could not drive any better or go any faster. I am happy with this stage, happy with my victory. I am also happy because we did not have any mechanical problems. The car is working well. In the end I was just behind Stéphane [Peterhansel], but I was unable to overtake him. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scratch | 13 | 5 | 1 | 4 | 4 | - | 5 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 7 | 8 |
| stage | 13 | 5 | 1 | 4 | 4 | - | 5 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 7 | 8 |
| Overall | 13 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 3 | - | 4 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
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