Defending champion Carlos Sainz won the ninth stage of the Dakar Rally, chopping almost two minutes off the overall lead of Volkswagen teammate Nasser al-Attiyah on Tuesday.
The 235km loop of the massive sand dunes around Copiapo was expected to favor new rally leader al-Attiyah of Qatar, but he punctured and Sainz led for most of the last special in Chile.
The Spaniard won his fifth stage of this Dakar, and the 22nd of his career, in 2 hours, 14 minutes, 39 seconds, seeing a lead of more than 3 minutes end up being 1:56 ahead of the hard-chasing al-Attiyah. Giniel de Villiers of South Africa ensured an all-VW podium by finishing third, 9:02 behind.
PHOTO: EPA
“I’m happy with my day, especially since dunes, desert and off-track terrain aren’t my favorite type,” Sainz said.
Overall, al-Attiyah, chasing his first Dakar title, led Sainz by 3:18 in a two-man contest heading to Sunday’s finish in Buenos Aires.
“I’m quite happy to finish today without any problems,” al-Attiyah said. “Tomorrow it will be very interesting because we start in second position. As the first car, you always lose time. I am sure tomorrow will be better for us.”
Jonah Street of the US won his second ever Dakar motorbike stage, pulling in front on his Yamaha in the last 35km.
Street won in 3:06:56, more than three minutes ahead of second-placed Frans Verhoeven of Belgium, and another two seconds faster than David Casteu of France. Overall, Street was nearly four hours behind leader Marc Coma.
Titleholder Cyril Despres of France wasn’t able to take advantage of the mass start, and nine of the first 10 riders were going the wrong way after only 20km. Despres finished seventh, while Coma of Spain was ninth. Crucially, Coma was only a minute behind Despres, which still gave him a cushion of 8:14 in front of Despres.
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