Dakar: Gordon wins stage in cars race as Coma regains lead in bikes race

Robby Gordon won the 12th stage of the Dakar rally cars race as Marc Coma wins his fifth stage victory in the bikes race .

Hummer's driver Robby Gordon and co-driver Johnny Campbell both from the U.S, compete in the 12th stage of the 2012 Argentina-Chile-Peru Dakar Rally between Arequipa and Nazca, Peru
Hummer's driver Robby Gordon and co-driver Johnny Campbell both from the U.S, compete in the 12th stage of the 2012 Argentina-Chile-Peru Dakar Rally between Arequipa and Nazca, Peru

Frenchman Peterhansel lost 15 minutes as he got stuck in sand dunes, leaving him seventh on the stage and cutting his overall lead to 20 minutes over Nani Roma.

Gordon'sfantastic drive saw him win the stage by 15 minutes eight seconds over Russia's Leonid Novotskiy, with Giniel de Villiers third a further seven minutes back. De Villiers retains third place in the overall standings, over an hour behind Peterhansel.

In the bikes category, Marc Coma went back in the overall lead of the Dakar bike race as he won the 12th stage of the race.

The Spaniard took his fifth stage victory of the race, beating compatriots Joan Barreda Bort and Kordi Viladoms by two minutes 43 seconds and 3:10 respectively.

Most importantly for Coma, he beat arch-rival Cyril Despres by 3:57 to take a 1:35 overall lead, but Despres will have the advantage of starting fourth on Saturday's penultimate stage.

It was the 21st stage victory of Coma's Dakar career.