2010 event winner Carlos Sainz remains unbeaten in the 2011 Dakar Rally, having stretched his lead with a win on stage two today.
The Volkswagen driver is now 3m05s clear of X-Raid BMW's Stephane Peterhansel in the overall standings, having won today's Cordoba to San Miguel leg by 1m03sec. Sainz's teammate Nasser Al-Attiyah was second quickest on stage two, with a late charge seeing him snatch the position from Peterhansel by 15 seconds. The result brings Al-Attiyah to within 14 seconds of Peterhansel's second position in the outright results.
While VW still holds two of the top three places, its challenge has been hampered by an accident for Mark Miller today. The American lost nearly 50 minutes with both the crash itself and a later stop for further attention, but VW is confident that the damage can be fully repaired for Tuesday.
Another leading driver in trouble already is Robby Gordon, who was delayed by over half an hour with mechanical issues on his Hummer.