Wolfsburg (13 January 2009). Volkswagen has kept the upper hand with three cars leading the event, even on the extremely demanding tenth leg of the 2009 Dakar Rally: CarlosSainz/Michel Périn (E/F) in the Race Touareg extended their advantage in the overall classification by another 7.39 minutes, to 27.31 minutes. On the loop around Copiapó in Chile the duo clinched its sixth stage victory with a narrow lead: after 470 kilometres through the Atacama desert merely 21 seconds separated the Volkswagen team from Robby Gordon/Andy Grider (USA/USA) in the Hummer. For Sainz, who is just contesting his third “Dakar”, this marked as much as the 15th stage victory in the cross-country classic.
Mark Miller/Ralph Pitchford (USA/ZA) solidified their second place overall in the rally by setting the third-best time of the day. They reached the finish 7.39 minutes behind Sainz. Their team colleagues Giniel de Villiers/Dirk von Zitzewitz (ZA/D) drove the sixth-best time with an 18.15-minute gap on the loop that was shortened by about 200 kilometres versus the original planning due to the delayed start in the morning on account of fog. In the overall classification, the South African-German pairing remains in third place, now ranking 41.13 minutes behind the front runners.
For the first time, Volkswagen’s outright advantage over their best rival has increased toover one hour: ranking fourth overall, Nani Roma/Lucas Cruz (E/E) as the only remaining Mitsubishi team are trailing Carlos Sainz by as much as 1:13 hour.
Volkswagen Motorsport
