Carlos Sainz leads Dakar Rally

Volkswagen assumed first and second positions overall with Carlos Sainz/Michel Périn and Giniel de Villiers/Dirk von Zitzewitz after they mastered the challenging conditions on the Dakar Rally’s second stage.

Sainz took victory in the Volkswagen Race Touareg on the dusty stage between Santa Rosa and Puerto Madryn in Argentina. The Spanish-French duo staged a thrilling fight for victory on the day with the Mitsubishi pair of Stéphane Peterhansel/Jean-Paul Cottret and won by 1:14 minutes.
 
Third best time was sufficient for Giniel de Villiers to improve, like his team mate, one position in the overall standings. The South African is now second 2:19 minutes off the lead. Mark Miller/Ralph Pitchford felt the full effect of the perils along the 237 stage kilometres, which all the Volkswagen drivers unanimously agreed to be significantly harder than yesterday’s stage and the subsequent 600 kilometre long liaison section to Puerto Madryn. They frequently had to avoid motorcyclists, twice lost their way in the dusty, hot track conditions and are now seventh overall. The demands made of Dieter Depping/Timo Gottschalk were even harder. After losing time due to electrical problems yesterday, they had to start behind many slower vehicles, but completed the stage so quickly with a perfectly functioning Race Touareg that eleventh best time was the result.
 
Kris Nissen (Volkswagen Motorsport Director)

"A good day for Volkswagen – I can’t say it a different way. Carlos (Sainz) and Giniel (de Villiers) have given us first and second overall, every Race Touareg ran perfectly today so that I am in fact very satisfied. Also, at the first bivouac the obligatory ‘Dakar’ feeling was again apparent, every participant and team are one big family. The demands made of the driver and more specifically the co-driver were considerably greater on the second day, and for the third day we expect a completely different terrain. We aim to prepare ourselves for this as well as possible.”
 
#301 – Carlos Sainz, 1st place leg / 1st place overall

"The second stage was a great deal harder than the first. The motorbikes and dust caused us the most the problems. We had to drive slower behind the motorbikes, but couldn’t afford to stop otherwise we would have got bogged down in the soft ground. The first part of the stage was particularly fast. We got lost once at a difficult point. However, my co-driver Michel worked excellently under these conditions.”
 
#305 – Giniel de Villiers, 3rd place leg / 2nd place overall

"Today we had to master many tight sections full of trees. In the dense dust you are as good as running blind. In the middle section of the stage we got lost briefly and lost one or two minutes. The second stage was also particularly difficult for the co-driver, which makes the fact that we have moved up to second overall even better.”

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