Sainz Clinches 5th Dakar Win, Increases Lead

Carlos Sainz looks set to win the Dakar Rally this year. Following his former rival Nasser Al-Attiyah being disqualified last week, the Spaniard won all stages to come, including the one on yesterday. On the bumpy and rocky road between La Serena to Copiapo, Sainz avoided making any mistakes and, thanks to Mark Miller's steering problem in the second part of the stage, crossed the finish line in 1st place.

Miller was looking very good in the first part of the stage, as he overtook Sainz for the lead after the 150th kilometer. However, on the last off-road section of yesterday's stage – which Miller admits has been waiting for the entire year – the American's Volkswagen hit a rock and had to stop for changing his wheel and fixing his steering.

Unlike the previous stages, the podium was not completed by a VW but by Robby Gordon's Hummer. The American driver finished the day with another solid performance, crossing the finish line only 2:16 minutes behind Sainz. He recuperated more than 20 minutes to Nani Roma in the overall standings, as the only Mitsubishi works driver in the race came in 7th, 24:41 minutes behind Sainz.

South African Giniel de Villiers lost his 2nd position overall to VW teammate Mark Miller, as the South African lost no less than 12 minutes to Sainz and more than 10 minutes to the American. He encountered several navigation problems around Km 80 and lost valuable time trying to get back on the right route.

Carlos Sainz – “This was a very tough and demanding leg which, in the beginning, particularly tested the navigation skills of my co-driver Michel Perin – he really did a fantastic job. On the driving side, lots of off-road passages, hard shocks and stones galore made life difficult for us. But we handled these challenges well. The next few days will remain rough - that's why our main goal is to get through without any problems. Then we'll see what results this will produce.”

Mark Miller – “We have been waiting for a year for this stage. We caught Carlos after 60 kms and we overtook him after around 150. Things were going quite well. In the last off-road section Carlos and I were both a little bit... The track was difficult to find and there were big boulders and I hit one on the right, I didn't even see it and it broke the steering so we had to stop and fix the steering and at the same time fix a wheel that broke. But it was a really, really fun day.”

Robby Gordon – “Today was a great day for the Monster Energy Hummer as well as the Vanguard Hummer. Unfortunately, the No. 309 Hummer got stuck in a river bed. We lost about nine minutes trying to escape, but only ended up losing today's stage by two minutes to Sainz. Had we not had this problem, I am confident that we would have won today's stage, especially after some of the other leaders experienced some problems. I think Mark Miller broke a wheel and Giniel de Villiers got lost. If they continue to have problems, we have a good chance to win this thing.”

Overall Standings:

1. Sainz (Volkswagen)               33h26:07
2. Miller (Volkswagen)                + 19:52
3. De Villiers (Volkswagen)         + 22:58
4. Roma (Mitsubishi)                   + 58:12
5. Gordon (Hummer)                   + 1:34:17
6. Holowczyc (Nissan)                 + 3:23:53
7. Tollefsen (Nissan)                    + 4:05:19
8. Terranova (BMW)                    + 6:04:47
9. Kuipers (BMW)                        + 6:37:23
10. Van Deijne ( Mitsubishi)         + 7:04:42