Sainz wins Dakar Stage 6

Sainz in action

Carlos Sainz won the sixth stage of the Dakar Rally Friday, extending his overall lead as the grueling race passes through the Atacama desert to the Chile-Peru border.

Sainz, the defending champion in the cars category, guided his Volkswagen to victory in 4 hours, 53 minutes, 53 seconds. Teammate Nasser Al-Attiyah was 9 seconds back with Giniel de Villiers 9:49 behind. In the overall standings, Sainz is 2:42 up on Al-Attiyah and 14:15 ahead of Stephane Peterhansel.

In bikes, Ruben Faria on a KTM won the stage in 5:37:27. Helder Rodrigues was 50 seconds back and Cyril Despres trailed by 3:54. Marc Coma, who finished the stage fourth, kept his overall lead and is 8:48 ahead of Despres and 22:12 in front of Francisco Lopez Contardo.

The long, dusty stage pushed drivers to the limits with Saturday's rest day sure to be welcome.

Peterhansel in a BMW was gaining on Sainz at the midway point, but then had navigational problems and was halted four times by tire punctures.

"We only had three spare wheels, so we had to stop regularly to inflate that last wheel," said Peterhansel, who has won Dakar nine times. "We paid for our setbacks quite heavily today. It's a bad news before the rest day."

There were similar problems on the bike side.

"Honestly, it's a miracle I finished," said Despres, whose KTM had engine problems. "After the refueling point the bike started to vibrate and I didn't know whether to stop or not — in case the engine was going to blow."