Unbeatable Sainz Extends Lead in Dakar Rally

Carlos Sainz approached this year’s Dakar Rally with modesty and decided to take each day as it comes, and so far this strategy could not have paid off better. The reigning champion of the event took his second stage win in a row today, having won the Cordoba to San Miguel running by more than a minute and maintaining his invincibility in the 2011 edition of the South American event.

Having scored a perfect stage win yesterday, during the Dakar Rally opener, Sainz climbed at the wheel of his Touareg with the sole thought in mind of maintaining his one and a half minute lead in the overall classification ahead of X-Raid BMW’s and Dakar legend Stephane Peterhansel.

Instead, he had to face opposition from his VW teammate Nasser Al-Attiyah, who pushed hard in the last section of Stage 2 to finish off some 31 seconds ahead of the BMW driver. Even so, the Qatari was a distant 1:03 seconds from Sainz, but the result brought him closer to Peterhansel in the drivers’ standings.

Volkswagen again managed to put 3 cars inside the Top 4, with 2009 Dakar Rally winner Giniel de Villiers coming in a distant 4th, some 5:43 second off leader Sainz. And the German carmaker would have probably made it 4 out of 5 again on Monday hadn’t Mark Miller been involved in an accident that caused him a 50-minute delay at the finish line.

X-Raid BMW took 5th and 6th through Orlando Terranova and Krzysztof Holowczyc respectively, while Guerlain Chicherit finished his second day at the wheel of his MINI Countryman more than 11 minutes behind Sainz, in 7th place. For the second day running, Robby Gordon lost a huge amount of time – over half an hour – due to mechanical problems with his Hummer.

In the overall classification, Sainz now extended his lead to 3:05 seconds from Peterhansel, with Al-Attiyah some 14 seconds behind in 3rd place.