Volkswagen Still Lead - Al-Attiyah Reduces Deficit to Sainz

BOTANY, AUSTRALIA – January 14, 2010: Volkswagen defended its lead on the eleventh of the 14 stages in the Dakar Rally: The three Volkswagen Race Touareg cars continue to lead the overall standings after the second Andes crossing from Chile to Argentina. The name of the potential winner still remains wide open: The leaders Carlos Sainz/Lucas Cruz (E/E) lost 5 minutes 38 seconds of their lead to Nasser Al-Attiyah/Timo Gottschalk (Q/D) and Mark Miller/Ralph Pitchford (USA/ZA). The closest rivals – Stéphane Peterhansel/Jean-Paul Cottret (F/F) in an X-raid BMW – are already 2 hours 9 minutes behind the leader in fourth place.

Sainz was forced to accept a setback on the descent of the Andes from an altitude of around 3,000 metres: Two slow punctures threw him back. In the overall standings he now leads by only 4 minutes 28 seconds from his team mate Al-Attiyah from Qatar. Mark Miller is still third 23 minutes 50 seconds behind. Best Volkswagen drivers on the day were Giniel de Villiers/Dirk von Zitzewitz (ZA/D): Last year’s winners recorded the third fastest stage time ahead of Al-Attiyah and Miller and remain seventh overall. Victory on the day went to Guerlain Chicherit/Tina Thörner (F/S) in an X-raid BMW.

The eleventh Dakar Rally day was dominated by tight gravel sections, made great demands of both man and machine through river crossings and formed a challenge for the brakes with a long downhill section at the end of the stage. On the numerous rocky and stony sections the drivers aimed to avoid getting punctures.