Dakar: ARGENTINA CHILE 2010

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Sainz moves into Dakar Rally lead

Carlos Sainz has moved into the lead of the Dakar Rally for the first time this year after Stephane Peterhansel was delayed on stage five, which was won by Mark Miller.

Nine times Dakar winner Peterhansel had led for the past two days, but had to stop twice during today's Copiapo to Antofagasta stage with transmission problems on his X-raid BMW, delaying him by over two hours.

"It is obviously very disappointing for the whole team," said X-raid team boss Sven Quandt. "Stephane was driving superbly and then we have this unfortunate mechanical problem.

"This was a new prop shaft that we had fitted last night and it failed after 120km today. It is so difficult to drive this stage in two-wheel drive and just
reaching the finish without dropping too much time is an achievement in itself."

That allowed Sainz to move up to first in the overall standings, although the former World Rally Championship star had to settle for second on stage five behind his Volkswagen team-mate Miller. Although Sainz closed the gap to the American in the middle of the stage, he then had to change a flat tyre, so Miller was ultimately fastest through by 2m10s.

"When we got to the really rocky sections I really was going easy," said Miller. "We had no problems, never got out of the car, and it was a great day. We had discussed that really the Dakar starts today. I think we took off the girlie skirt today, but there were no dunes today and I'm sure we'll have some tough days to come in the dunes."

Miller remains third outright behind Nasser Al-Attiyah, with Peterhansel's problems allowing VW to fill the top three positions - and giving the squad a lead of almost a minute over its competitors - although Sainz is taking nothing for granted yet.

"Obviously the time lost by Stephane Peterhansel is an advantage for us but it's only the fifth stage of the raid," he said. "There is still a lot to do. Personally, I intend to keep going at my own pace."

After a slow start to the event, the combination of yesterday's stage win and a fourth-fastest time today has moved Robby Gordon (Hummer) up from ninth position to fourth, despite some more problems today.

"I drove off road and got stuck for four minutes early and then lost a belt at the back so we lost about six minutes probably," said Gordon.

"We're definitely in the fight now. With Peterhansel backing up, I think we have a good shot at it. Right now we're all within an hour and that's what we wanted. We're definitely on Hummer terrain now."

Stage five results:

Pos Driver Car Time/Gap
1. Mark Miller VW 5h06m15s
2. Carlos Sainz VW + 2m10s
3. Nasser Al-Attiyah VW + 4m27s
4. Robby Gordon Hummer + 4m48s
5. Mauricio Neves VW + 9m21s
6. Guerlain Chicherit BMW + 12m24s
7. Orlando Terranova Mitsubishi + 16m33s
8. Carlos Sousa Mitsubishi + 20m08s
9. Krzysztof Holowczyc Nissan + 25m26s
10. Leonid Novitskiy BMW + 25m38s

Overall positions after stage five:

Pos Driver Car Time/Gap
1. Carlos Sainz VW 16h10m51s
2. Nasser Al-Attiyah VW + 4m37s
3. Mark Miller VW + 9m39s
4. Robby Gordon Hummer + 59m55s
5. Carlos Sousa Mitsubishi + 1h13m22s
6. Krzysztof Holowczyc Nissan + 1h16m18s
7. Mauricio Neves VW + 1h20m10s
8. Guerlain Chicherit BMW + 1h27m41s
9. Guilherme Spinelli Mitsubishi + 1h37m48s
10. Stephane Peterhansel BMW + 2h04m49s

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Peterhansel wins Dakar stage six

Stephane PeterhanselDakar legend Stephane Peterhansel bounced back from his disappointment yesterday to take his 20th career car class victory in the event today.

The Frenchman passed 11 cars on today's 418km run in Chile from Pedro de Valdivia to Iquique - his record 53th stage win in all categories - 6m47s ahead of rally leader Carlos Sainz and 8m55s ahead of yesterday's stage winner Mark Miller.

Peterhansel dropped to 10th in the standings yesterday after losing two hours to transmission problems with his X-raid BMW, but has now climbed back to eighth. He is now just 30 minutes away from fourth overall, but is nearly two hours behind the trio of leading Volkswagens.

Sainz lay third for much of the day in his VW Touareg, then passed Miller and pulled clear in second. The Spaniard was pleased with his run and impressed with the scenery on the drop down through the Atacama Desert to the coast.

"We stayed behind Miller for a long time, in the dust, then I was able to pass him," said Sainz. "No problem today except that half of the stage was raced in the dust.

"But that last drop was incredible. You can see the whole sea. It is very, very steep. It's quite something, really."

Stage 6 results:
Pos Driver Car Time
1. Stephane Peterhansel BMW 4h23m55s
2. Carlos Sainz Volkswagen +00m47s
3. Mark Miller Volkswagen +08m55s
4. Nasser Al-Attiyah Volkswagen +11m34s
5. Leonid Novitskiy BMW +17m32s
6. Nicolas Misslin Mitsubishi +18m24s
7. Carlos Sousa Mitsubishi +21m29s
8. Guerlain Chicherit BMW +24m48s
9. Krzysztof Holowczyc Nissan +28m09s
10. Orlando Terranova Mitsubishi +33m12s

Overall standings:
Pos Driver Car Time
1. Carlos Sainz Volkswagen 20h35m33s
2. Nasser Al-Attiyah Volkswagen 15m24s
3. Mark Miller Volkswagen 17m47s
4. Carlos Sousa Mitsubishi 1h34m04s
5. Krzysztof Holowczyc Nissan 1h43m40s
6. Robby Gordon Hummer 1h48m25s
7. Guerlain Chicherit BMW 1h51m42s
8. Stephane Peterhansel Bmw 2h04m02s
9. Guilherme Spinelli Mitsubishi 2h12m18s
10. Leonid Novitskiy BMW 3h10m18s

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Al-Attiyah wins stage, closes on Sainz

Nasser Al-Attiyah reduced his Volkswagen team-mate Carlos Sainz's Dakar Rally lead to 11 minutes by winning the longest stage of the event.

Al-Attiyah overcame X-raid BMW driver Stephane Peterhansel to claim the stage victory on today's 600 kilometre long Iquique to Antofagasta leg, beating the Dakar legend by 3m29s and Sainz by 4m21s.

"I'm really happy, it was very, very long and really not an easy stage," said Al-Attiyah.

"After 150 [kilometres] we were stuck behind Carlos and it was very difficult for us. But when we started the second part of the stage I tried to push a little bit. It was difficult for me, but I found my chance and I took him.

"It's the longest stage of the Dakar, if you win it you've done a really good job. My plan today was to push and come back again at Carlos."

As well as bringing him closer to Sainz, the result moves Al-Attiyah 11 minutes clear of fellow VW driver Mark Miller in their battle for second place. The American rued time lost to navigation problems.

"We were lost for a long time and I knew I had to push really hard to try to catch something back up," he said. "It was completely unlucky for us and we lost a lot of time. Today wasn't a good day."

Peterhansel's second place on today's stage continued his excellent recovery from the propshaft problem that had cost him the lead on Wednesday. That drama had dropped the X-raid car to 10th overall, but he is already back up to fifth place, just 16 seconds behind team-mate Guerlain Chicherit - and felt he could have gone faster had he not briefly lost the course.

"We made a little error navigating and it cost us one or two minutes," said Peterhansel. "This is probably why we lost the stage."

Both X-raid men moved ahead of Overdrive Nissan's Krzysztof Holowczyc and JMB Mitsubishi's Carlos Sousa on today's stage, and gained further ground as Robby Gordon's Hummer suffered an alternator failure and tumbled down the order.

The rally now pauses for its mid-point rest day tomorrow before resuming with Sunday's Antofagasta to Copiapo stage.

Stage seven results:

Pos Driver Car Time/Gap
1. Nasser Al-Attiyah VW 5h41m29s
2. Stephane Peterhansel BMW + 3m29s
3. Carlos Sainz VW + 4m21s
4. Mark Miller VW + 8m40s
5. Guerlain Chicherit BMW + 15m33s
6. Giniel de Villiers VW + 21m22s
7. Orlando Terranova Mitsubishi + 33m08s
8. Krzysztof Holowczyc Nissan + 41m39s
9. Nicolas Misslin Mitsubishi + 47m26s
10. Christian Lavieille Nissan + 1h05m07s

Overall standings:

Pos Driver Car Time/Gap
1. Carlos Sainz VW 26h21m23s
2. Nasser Al-Attiyah VW + 11m03s
3. Mark Miller VW + 22m06s
4. Guerlain Chicherit BMW + 2h02m54s
5. Stephane Peterhansel BMW + 2h03m10s
6. Krzysztof Holowczyc Nissan + 2h20m58s
7. Carlos Sousa Mitsubishi + 3h08m58s
8. Guilherme Spinelli Mitsubishi + 3h23m35s
9. Leonid Novitskiy BMW + 4h17m21s
10. Robby Gordon Hummer + 4h25m10s

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Volkswagen: Dakar is not won yet

Volkswagen motorsport boss Kris Nissen says his team is not taking Dakar victory for granted yet despite being two hours clear of its rivals at the halfway point.

Last year's winning squad faced strong opposition from the X-raid team's BMW in the first week of the 2010 event, but a severe delay for X-raid's Stephane Peterhansel on Wednesday has allowed VW to move into the top three positions with Carlos Sainz, Nasser Al-Attiyah and Mark Miller.

Although Guerlain Chicherit and Peterhansel in the best of the X-raid cars are just over two hours adrift of the VWs in fourth and fifth places, as the field regrouped at today's mid-rally rest day Nissen insisted VW could not relax yet.

"My assessment after the first seven of 14 Dakar days? First of all: The competition is tough, particularly the X-raid team and Stephane Peterhansel are fast," he said.

"Secondly: The first half of the rally was harder than expected. And thirdly: Everyone in the team is doing an outstanding job. I'm proud of each and every one in the squad. We're leading this extremely tough competition with three vehicles.

"This means that we've achieved a lot but haven't won anything yet. The following will apply to the coming seven stages as it has before: You've always got to stay cool-headed at the Dakar."

Sainz, who leads by 11 minutes over Al-Attiyah, agreed that the result was far from certain. Last year the former World Rally champion crashed out three days from the finish while leading by 27 minutes.

"There's plenty of reason to be happy - as well as a big 'but': We've merely finished half of the rally," said Sainz.

Al-Attiyah took four minutes out of Sainz's lead by winning Friday's stage and said he was still optimistic of challenging his team-mate for victory.

"My co-driver Timo Gottschalk and I are within a striking distance of the overall lead," said Al-Attiyah. "Even though the remaining legs will be anything but easy we continue aiming for Dakar victory. But to achieve it, it's necessary to proceed with prudence and show no weaknesses."

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Peterhansel wins again on stage eight

Stephane Peterhansel extended his record of Dakar Rally stage victories to 54, winning today's 472km run down the Chilean coast from Antofagasta to Copiapo.

Peterhansel's victory moved him up to fourth in the overall standings, displacing his BMW team-mate Guerlain Chicherit.

"This was a very difficult stage and we had to drive so carefully on the rocks to avoid problems," said Peterhansel. "There was also a lot of navigation, difficult navigation as well.

"We also found the dunes at the end tricky to get past, especially since we didn't stop to let the tires down a bit. Since we had high tire pressure for the stones, we had to cross the dunes with 3 kilos, which isn't simple.

Carlos Sainz retained the overall lead for Volkswagen with second today, 45 seconds behind Peterhansel and 22 seconds ahead of Mark Miller.

Last year's winner Giniel de Villiers came home fourth, ahead of Nasser Al-Attiyah who kept his second place overall behind Sainz.

"Between Nasser [Al-Attiyah] and Carlos [Sainz] it's a real battle for 1st place," Peterhansel added. "We can't have a say in that fight because we're still too far behind. But we keep on picking up the specials and trying our best."

Tomorrow's stage will take the crews another 300km south from Copiapo to La Serena, the last stage in Chile's Atacama desert.

Stage eight:
Pos Driver Car Gap
1. Stephane Peterhansel BMW 5h06m05s
2. Carlos Sainz Volkswagen +45s
3. Mark Miller Volkswagen +1m07s
4. Giniel de Villiers Volkswagen +4m01s
5. Nasser Al-Attiyah Volkswagen +4m17s
6. Orlando Terranova Mitsubishi +7m15s
7. Carlos Sousa Mitsubishi +21m10s
8. Guerlain Chicherit Bmw +22m04s
9. Krzysztof Holowczyc Nissan +25m32s
10. Robby Gordon Hummer +36m59s

Overall standings:
Pos Driver Car Gap
1. Carlos Sainz Volkswagen 31h28m13s
2. Nasser Al-Attiyah Volkswagen +14m35
3. Mark Miller Volkswagen +22m28
4. Stephane Peterhansel BMW +2h02m25s
5. Guerlain Chicherit BMW +2h24m13s
6. Krzysztof Holowczyc Nissan +2h45m45s
7. Carlos Sousa Mitsubishi +3h29m23s
8. Guilherme Spinelli Mitsubishi +4h04m12s
9. Giniel de Villiers Volkswagen +4h34m49s
10. Robby Gordon Hummer +5h01m24s


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Al-Attiyah closes in on Sainz in Dakar

Nasser Al-Attiyah led a Volkswagen 1-2-3 on the ninth stage of the Dakar rally, the Qatari reducing the gap to team-mate Carlos Sainz once again.

Al-Attiyah took his third stage victory of this year's event in the 338-km special from Copiapo to La Serena, beating leader Sainz by nearly six minutes to reduce the gap to the Spaniard to less than nine in the overall standings.

"After yesterday I said I must take six minutes from Carlos because if he gains time over me today, then the team might start giving team orders and I don't need team orders," said Al-Attiyah. "Now victory is possible, we have an eight-minute gap I think. The fight continues.

"I'm here to win the race and I will try to do my best. Tomorrow, the stage will be like the WRC with no sand. On this type of stage, opening the road won't be a problem.

"Today, I made the difference in the sand. From the start I really pushed a lot. First I caught up with de Villiers then with Miller. I'm very happy because I've never pushed so hard like that in my life, never."

It was the sixth victory for Al-Attiyah in his Dakar career after the VW driver dominated the day, setting the fastest time in all the control points.

Sainz was second ahead of last year's winner Giniel de Villiers, as the German manufacturer continued with its domination of the event.

American Mark Miller, in another works Volkswagen Touareg, finished in fifth behind BMW's Guerlain Chicherit to keep third place in the standings, already 27 minutes behind Sainz.

Stephane Peterhansel could only be sixth in today's special after he was stuck in the sand at the 95km mark, but the Frenchman kept fourth place in the overall standings, albeit over two hours behind

Pos Driver Car Gap
1. Nasser Al-Attiyah Volkswagen 1h59m28s
2. Carlos Sainz Volkswagen 5m59s
3. Giniel de Villiers Volkswagen 7m38s
4. Guerlain Chicherit BMW 10m13s
5. Mark Miller Volkswagen 10m48s
6. Stephane Peterhansel BMW 17m26s
7. Nicolas Misslin Mitsubishi 19m54s
8. Leonid Novitskiy BMW 20m15s
9. Carlos Sousa Mitsubishi 21m03s
10. Orlando Terranova Mitsubishi 30m08s

Pos Driver Car Gap
1. Carlos Sainz Volkswagen 33h33m40s
2. Nasser Al-Attiyah Volkswagen 8:36s
3. Mark Miller Volkswagen 27:17s
4. Stephane Peterhansel Bmw 2h13m52s
5. Guerlain Chicherit Bmw 2h28m27s
6. Carlos Sousa Mitsubishi 3h44m27s
7. Giniel de Villiers Volkswagen 4h36m28s
8. Guilherme Spinelli Mitsubishi 5h15m42s
9. Leonid Novitskiy Bmw 5h30m58s
10. Robby Gordon Hummer 5h34m20s

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Sainz takes first stage win of 2010

Dakar rally leader Carlos Sainz has moved another step closer to overall victory after winning Tuesday's 10th stage of the South American event.

The Spaniard completed the 238-km special from La Serena to Santiago in just over three hours to claim his first stage victory of the 2010 Dakar.

Sainz finished 28 seconds ahead of Frenchman Stephane Peterhansel, with American Mark Miller in third position.

It was Sainz's 16th stage victory of his Dakar career.

Sainz's closest rival and Volkswagen team-mate Nasser Al-Attiyah had to settle for fourth place in the stage, losing one minute and forty seconds to the former world rally champion, who now leads the Qatari by over ten minutes with four timed specials remaining in the event.

"Today we didn't have any problems," said Sainz. "Some 80kms from the start we caught up with Nasser and we followed him because he wasn't listening to the sentinel and it was impossible to pass him.

"It was a very slow and twisty track, a road more than anything. I knew he wasn't going to let me pass but since km 80 I was on his trail of dust."

Al-Attiyah, the first man on the road today, said it has been an stressful stage for him.

"It was very, very dangerous, not easy, because there were a lot of corners, a lot of slippery stuff," he said. "For me it was not a good feeling and I'm really happy to have finished without any problems.

"I'm quite happy. For me today it was very stressful because we opened the road and it was not easy. But it's okay, I'm quite happy for today."

On a very tight special, BMW's Guerlain Chicherit was fifth fastest, just over two and a half minutes behind Sainz.

Stage 10 standings:

Pos Driver Car Gap
1. Carlos Sainz Volkswagen 3h01m05s
2. Stephane Peterhansel BMW 28s
3. Mark Miller Volkswagen 1m02s
4. Nasser Al-Attiyah Volkswagen 1m04s
5. Guerlain Chicherit BMW 2m04s
6. Orlando Terranova Mitsubishi 3m42s
7. Miguel Barbosa Mitsubishi 7m43s
8. Guilherme Spinelli Mitsubishi 9m26s
9. Robby Gordon Hummer 9m36s
10. Carlos Sousa Mitsubishi 9m38s

Overall standings after stage 10:

Pos Driver Car Gap
1. Carlos Sainz Volkswagen 36h34m45s
2. Nasser Al-Attiyah Volkswagen 10m06s
3. Mark Miller Volkswagen 28m19s
4. Stephane Peterhansel BMW 2h14m20s
5. Guerlain Chicherit BMW 2h30m59s
6. Carlos Sousa Mitsubishi 3h54m05s
7. Giniel de Villiers Volkswagen 4h46m13s
8. Guilherme Spinelli Mitsubishi 5h25m08s
9. Orlando Terranova Mitsubishi 5h40m31s
10. Robby Gordon Hummer 5h43m56s

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Sainz wins stage and stretches lead

Carlos Sainz moved a step closer to Dakar Rally victory by winning stage 12 - although closest rival Nasser Al-Attiyah was less than a minute slower.

Al-Attiyah had carved into Volkswagen team-mate Sainz's advantage on stage 11, narrowing the gap from ten to four and a half minutes as the Spaniard struggled with punctures.

But Sainz responded with a vengeance on the San Juan to San Rafael stage. Last year this was the day on which Sainz crashed out while holding a lead of nearly half an hour, but he set the pace from the outset this year.

Al-Attiyah closed in through the final sections of the stage, the last six kilometres of which had to be run in neutralised condition due to the huge volume of spectators at the finish, and was eventually only 52s slower. The gap between the pair therefore stands at 5m20s with just two stages to go.

VW maintains its top three formation with Mark Miller in third, while X-raid BMW driver Stephane Peterhansel is still the best of the rest in fourth.

Peterhansel's team-mate Guerlain Chicherit, who had won yesterday's stage, had a scare when a suspension breakage cost him over an hour and a half, but he remains fifth overall.

Stage 12:

Pos Driver Car Time/Gap
1. Carlos Sainz VW 3h30m29s
2. Nasser Al-Attiyah VW + 52s
3. Mark Miller VW + 4m22s
4. Stephane Peterhansel BMW + 10m49s
5. Robby Gordon Hummer + 10m56s
6. Nicolas Misslin Mitsubishi + 17m58s
7. Carlos Sousa Mitsubishi + 19m13s
8. Orlando Terranova Mitsubishi + 21m50s
9. Giniel de Villiers VW + 25m21s
10. Guilherme Spinelli Mitsubishi + 26m57s

Overall:

Pos Driver Car Time/Gap
1. Carlos Sainz VW 42h47m24s
2. Nasser Al-Attiyah VW + 5m20s
3. Mark Miller VW + 28m12s
4. Stephane Peterhansel BMW + 2h20m42s
5. Guerlain Chicherit BMW + 4h02m50s
6. Carlos Sousa Mitsubishi + 4h13m25s
7. Giniel de Villiers VW + 5h04m54s
8. Robby Gordon Hummer + 5h52m34s
9. Guilherme Spinelli Mitsubishi + 5h55m22s
10. Orlando Terranova Mitsubishi + 5h55m32s

Autosport

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Dakar set for final-stage showdown

The 2010 Dakar rally is set for a final-stage showdown for victory after Nasser Al-Attiyah reduced the gap to overall leader Carlos Sainz on the penultimate special of the event.

Although Sainz had marginally increased the gap to his Volkswagen team-mate on Thursday, the Qatari gained two and a half minutes on the Spaniard on today's stage, which was won by X-Raid's Stephane Peterhansel.

Nine-time Dakar winner Peterhansel scored his fourth victory of 2010, extending his record of stage victories to 55 as he looks set to finish this year's event in fourth place.

The Frenchman beat Al-Attiyah by one minute and 21 seconds, with Sainz 3m53s behind the stage winner and BMW's Guerlain Chicherit, fourth today.

The former world rally champion will go into the final special on Saturday with a lead of just two minutes and 48 seconds.

The 14th and final special will cover 206 timed kilometres from San Rafael to Argentina's capital Buenos Aires.

American Mark Miller finished in fifth position today to all but secure third position on the podium. The Volkswagen driver is over 31 minutes behind Sainz but nearly two hours ahead of Peterhansel.

Last year's winner Giniel de Villiers completed today's 368-km special from San Rafael to Santa Rosa in sixth.

Stage 13:

Pos Driver Car Time/Gap
1. Stephane Peterhansel BMW 2h58m25s
2. Nasser Al-Attiyah VW + 1m21s
3. Guerlain Chicherit BMW + 3m45s
4. Carlos Sainz VW + 3m53s
5. Mark Miller VW + 7m29s
6. Giniel de Villiers VW + 8m13s
7. Orlando Terranova Mitsubishi + 11m16s
8. Robby Gordon Hummer + 12m21s
9. Robert Baldwin Hummer + 13m37s
10. Carlos Sousa Mitsubishi + 17m00s

Overall:

Pos Driver Car Time/Gap
1. Carlos Sainz VW 45h49m42s
2. Nasser Al-Attiyah VW + 2m48s
3. Mark Miller VW + 31m48s
4. Stephane Peterhansel BMW + 2h16m49s
5. Guerlain Chicherit BMW + 4h02m42s
6. Carlos Sousa Mitsubishi + 4h26m32s
7. Giniel de Villiers VW + 5h09m14s
8. Robby Gordon Hummer + 6h01m02s
9. Orlando Terranova Mitsubishi + 6h02m55s
10. Guilherme Spinelli Mitsubishi + 6h09m09s

Autosport

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Sainz clinches Dakar Rally victory

Carlos Sainz resisted Volkswagen team-mate Nasser Al-Attiyah's late challenge to clinch his first Dakar Rally victory.

Al-Attiyah had reduced Sainz's lead - which at one stage reached 10 minutes - to just under three minutes going into the final stage.

But although Al-Attiyah was fastest again on today's San Rafael to Buenos Aires leg, he could not do enough in the final 206 kilometres to overhaul the former World Rally champion, who wrapped up victory with a cushion of 2m12s.

"It has been a very important day for me," said Sainz. "Spain has finally won the Dakar with cars and I'm delighted. I want to thank [co-pilot] Lucas [Cruz] for his great work and to all the team, and everybody who put their trust in me.

"We haven't had any problems, and the car doesn't have a scratch. I think we have done a fast but intelligent Dakar. It has been a very hard fight with my team-mate. We knew it would be that way. As I said before, I want to thank everyone who trusted in me."

Mark Miller finished third, to complete a one-two-three for VW as it repeated its 2009 win.

Sainz had held the lead from stage five onwards, as VW took command of the second half of the rally following a strong early challenge from the X-raid BMW team.

The BMWs had the pace to take the fight to VW, but not the consistency. Stage one winner Nani Roma crashed heavily on the second day, Guerlain Chicherit had to play catch-up from the start following severe electrical problems, and a broken propshaft on stage five cost Dakar legend Stephane Peterhansel a growing lead.

Peterhansel and Chicherit at least fought back to fourth and fifth, ahead of Carlos Sousa in the best of the ex-works Mitsubishis now run by the JMB Stradale team.

Last year's winner Giniel de Villiers was only seventh for VW after a string of early problems, while NASCAR regular Robby Gordon had a troubled fortnight in his Hummer and had to settle for eighth this time.

Stage 14:

Pos Driver Car Time/Gap
1. Nasser Al-Attiyah VW 1h19m42s
2. Carlos Sainz VW + 36s
3. Guerlain Chicherit BMW + 43s
4. Stephane Peterhansel BMW + 1m08s
5. Mark Miller VW + 1m39s
6. Giniel de Villiers VW + 1m41s
7. Robby Gordon Hummer + 1m58s
8. Orlando Terranova Mitsubishi + 2m28s
9. Robert Baldwin Hummer + 3m15s
10. Nicolas Misslin Mitsubishi + 4m20s

Overall:

Pos Driver Car Time/Gap
1. Carlos Sainz VW 47h10m00s
2. Nasser Al-Attiyah VW + 2m12s
3. Mark Miller VW + 32m51s
4. Stephane Peterhansel BMW + 2h17m21s
5. Guerlain Chicherit BMW + 4h02m49s
6. Carlos Sousa Mitsubishi + 4h31m45s
7. Giniel de Villiers VW + 5h10m19s
8. Robby Gordon Hummer + 6h02m24s
9. Orlando Terranova Mitsubishi + 6h04m47s
10. Guilherme Spinelli Mitsubishi + 6h13m41s

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