Portugal's Helder Rodrigues, riding a Yamaha, won the penultimate stage of the Dakar Rally yesterday ahead of France's Cyril Despres, who was virtually handed overall victory when rival Marc Coma became lost.
Coma's navigational error in the dunes meant he finished 13min 25sec behind Rodrigues and 12min 38sec behind three-timechampion Despres.
Rodrigues reached the finish line in the 275km stage from Nasca in 3hr 21min 16sec, a winning margin of 47sec over Despres on a KTM.
Barring an accident, Despres will be assured of the 2012 title overnight when he starts the final stage in Lima with a lead of more than 11 minutes over Coma, who had been the overnight leader yesterday, 95sec ahead of the Frenchman.
"I started very fast, as fast as I could, because I knew it would be difficult to stay in the lead of the rally," said Coma, who lost his way at the 207km mark.
"At 25km into the stage I had a mechanical problem which forced me to slow down. It was a gearbox problem and I feared I wouldn't be able to continue. So I am happy to be here, in second position, which is quite good."
Despres, the 2005, 2007 and 2010 winner, said he was sad to see his KTM teammate lose his way.
"I am not the kind of person who derives pleasure from the problems of teammates."
