Nasser Al-Attiyah Wins Dakar

Volkswagen driver Nasser Al-Attiyah coolly claimed his maiden Dakar Rally success as Carlos Sainz took the stage win on the 13th and final test of this year's event.

Qatari ace Al-Attiyah started the day with a lead of over 48 minutes over team-mate and runner-up Giniel de Villiers and he stretched that advantage to over 50 minutes as he finished second to Sainz on the day, with the Spaniard extending his record of Dakar stage victories to 24.

Al-Attiyah was never likely to lose such a handsome lead on today's short 181-kilometre run from Cordoba back to Buenos Aires, with the pivotal moments of the event coming when defending champion Sainz, who eventually finished third overall, struggled on stage eight before losing huge chunks of time during stages 10 and 11.

BMW's Stephane Peterhansel was the best of the non-Volkswagen's in fourth place.

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."

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. 

Carlos Sainz Faces Dakar Test

Unbeaten in the sport since the 2010 Dakar, Carlos Sainz comes into the 2011 edition with wisdom as well as a technical dexterity that have been established for a long time now. But the title defence will require the Spaniard to control a number of contenders, both in and out of his own team. 

The conjunction of parameters needed to for winning the Dakar prohibit overly confident prognostications. Even Carlos Sainz had to pay his dues. 

The two-time world rally champion had to first complete his learning phase of driving in the dunes and he made his share of first-timer mistakes before adapting his pace to an endurance event, then he had to team up with a suitable co-driver, Lucas Cruz, before finding the path to success. In all it took ‘El matador’ four editions and 17 stage wins before he won his maiden Dakar. And it was at the conclusion of an exercise in keeping a cool head because he had to contend with his team mate, the rambunctious Nasser Al-Attiyah, who finished a mere 2’38” adrift in the overall classification. In the Volkswagen camp, it seems that the Qatari is ready to give it his all to march on to the final step of the podium. 

Also runner-up on the Silk Way Rally, but at the wheel of the prior generation Race Touareg, Al-Attiyah will this time be at the controls of the same car as Sainz. In this VW duel, team mates Mark Miller and Giniel De Villiers have no intentions of playing the role of spectators. The 2009 winner demonstrated in Russia that he had rediscovered his form, before crashing out of the rally. 

While the German entries are favourites for the win, Robby Gordon, who finished on the podium in 2009 and who won’t be satisfied until he wins, can’t be overlooked. His latest generation Hummer is now four-wheel drive. The second car in his team will be driven by former Formula One driver, Eliseo Salazar from Chile. Further down the list of entries are a number of candidates, who don’t necessarily have enough to battle for the top three, but who have their sights set on a top ten result. One such entry is Christian Lavielle with his Dessoude-Prototype, as are Matthias Kahle and Benat Errandonea in the Philippe Gache prepared buggies. And finally, the opening stages will also offer a chance to Joan “Nani” Roma, who was brought in at the last minute to be the lead driver in Team Overdrive.

2011 Dakar Rally