On January 12, the 2013 Dakar Rally reached Tucumán, Argentina and completed the first half of the competition.
Today's leg took the competitors from Salta to Tucumán. The plan of the special stage (SS) was to race 471 km, which consisted of a first half and second half with a liaison of 133 km situated in between. Due to bad weather, the first half of the race was canceled in the evening of January 11, and the race was started with only a 183 km distance in the second half. However, portions of the road surface were very muddy due to the heavy rainfall. Especially, a deep river developed near the goal, which was difficult for the vehicles to cross. 4:24 p.m., the organizer decided to cancel today's race at the 86 km checkpoint (CP) 2.
According to this cancellation, the ranking of today's SS was officially determined by the time of the top 4 vehicles that reached the goal by 4:24 p.m., and the time of the vehicle that finished last among the 4 vehicles that reached the goal (02:07:21 of 4th ranked Stéphane Peterhansel) was equally imposed on the remaining vehicles that passed through CP2.
January 13 is a rest day for the 2013 Dakar Rally in Tucumán, and the participants will be performing intensive refreshing of their vehicles in preparation for the second half of the race.