Troubled Sainz's lead in Dakar Rally cut by half
Source: Agencies |
January 15, 2010, Friday
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CARLOS Sainz endured two punctures and lost more than half of his lead time as the Dakar Rally left Chile and returned to Argentina on Wednesday.
A day after winning his first stage, Sainz finished ninth on the 220-kilometer tight, gravelly route from Santiago across the Andes and descending into San Juan.
Sainz's lead of more than 10 minutes was cut to just 4:28 over Volkswagen teammate Nasser Al-Attiyah with three stages to go before the rally ends on Saturday in Buenos Aires. Nobody else was within 20 minutes of them.
"I took five minutes from him (Sainz) and now the gap is only four minutes," Al-Attiyah said. "The next three days will be very long. Yes, absolutely, Carlos is nervous. I want to win the Dakar."
Guerlain Chicherit of France in a BMW won the 11th stage, his first on the Dakar in four years, in 2:34:51.
Orlando Terranova of Argentina in a Mitsubishi was second, 30 seconds back, and 2009 champion Giniel de Villiers of South Africa was third, 39 seconds behind in his VW.
Qatar's Al-Attiyah was fourth, 1:41 back, and Sainz was 7:19 off the pace.
"We had two slow punctures," said Sainz, the two-time world rally champion.
"I don't know how we got them.
"We kept losing time and had to stop. ... We couldn't do anything. There were lots of trees on the stage and we hit quite a few of them."
Overall motorbike leader Cyril Despres of France continued to hold a commanding lead of 1:20:54 ahead of Pal Anders Ullevalseter of Norway.
Despres finished seventh on a stage won by Frans Verhoeven of the Netherlands on a BMW in 2:44:50.
Jonah Street of the United States was second on a KTM by just 3 seconds, and Alain Duclos of France was third, also on a KTM, 1:25 behind.
Ullevalseter was fourth and Despres seventh after the high-altitude start which forced mechanics to tinker with the engines to compensate for the lack of oxygen.
A day after winning his first stage, Sainz finished ninth on the 220-kilometer tight, gravelly route from Santiago across the Andes and descending into San Juan.
Sainz's lead of more than 10 minutes was cut to just 4:28 over Volkswagen teammate Nasser Al-Attiyah with three stages to go before the rally ends on Saturday in Buenos Aires. Nobody else was within 20 minutes of them.
"I took five minutes from him (Sainz) and now the gap is only four minutes," Al-Attiyah said. "The next three days will be very long. Yes, absolutely, Carlos is nervous. I want to win the Dakar."
Guerlain Chicherit of France in a BMW won the 11th stage, his first on the Dakar in four years, in 2:34:51.
Orlando Terranova of Argentina in a Mitsubishi was second, 30 seconds back, and 2009 champion Giniel de Villiers of South Africa was third, 39 seconds behind in his VW.
Qatar's Al-Attiyah was fourth, 1:41 back, and Sainz was 7:19 off the pace.
"We had two slow punctures," said Sainz, the two-time world rally champion.
"I don't know how we got them.
"We kept losing time and had to stop. ... We couldn't do anything. There were lots of trees on the stage and we hit quite a few of them."
Overall motorbike leader Cyril Despres of France continued to hold a commanding lead of 1:20:54 ahead of Pal Anders Ullevalseter of Norway.
Despres finished seventh on a stage won by Frans Verhoeven of the Netherlands on a BMW in 2:44:50.
Jonah Street of the United States was second on a KTM by just 3 seconds, and Alain Duclos of France was third, also on a KTM, 1:25 behind.
Ullevalseter was fourth and Despres seventh after the high-altitude start which forced mechanics to tinker with the engines to compensate for the lack of oxygen.
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