Sainz Wins Another Stage

Carlos Sainz added a second stage win in as many days at the Dakar Rally in Argentina, dominating the 324km special stage from Cordoba to San Miguel de Tucuman.

The Volkswagen driver crossed the line with a 1min 03sec advantage over Qatari teammate Nasser Al-Attiyah, with French veteran and multiple champion Stephane Peterhansel 94 seconds adrift in his BMW.

Double rally world champion Sainz moved his overall lead over Peterhansel to 3:05 with last year's runner-up Al-Attiyah third at 3:19 as the drivers head for Tuesday's third stage - a 500km special from San Miguel de Tucuman to San Salvador de Jujuy.

But the Spaniard lamented losing previous time because of windscreen wiper problems. 

'They wouldn't work properly and for a dozen kilometres I couldn't see a thing and I had to drive very slowly,' said Sainz. 

'I'm very disappointed. I've probably lost a lot of time. I don't understand why we still have this problem, because the mechanics checked everything yesterday. Overall, though, this stage suited me rather well.'

Al Attiyah also suffered mechanical problems which resulted in him losing power over the final 100km.

'Yesterday we had a small problem and today we had exactly the same problem,' said the Qatari.

'I don't know what's wrong, it was probably something to do with the water. We really need to fix it because I'm disappointed that we lost a lot of time.'

Peterhansel was nevertheless impressed by Sainz's form.

'It isn't easy to try to follow Sainz's pace. You can see that on these very technical stages, Carlos is slightly quicker than us and we'll perhaps have to wait until the desert to find a chink in his armour.' 

In the motorbikes section, three-time champion Cyril Despres also claimed victory in his section's 300km second stage. Despres finished 1min 49sec ahead of fellow KTM rider Marc Coma of Spain with compatriot David Casteu of Sherco in third.