Carlos Sainz lost the lead of the Dakar today when he got lost tackling the sand dunes at kilometre 75. He was 18'03" down on the new leader at the finish line and now lies eleventh in the classification.
Today's stage win propelled Stéphane Peterhansel to the top of the car category 2'38" ahead of another former winner, South African Giniel de Villiers. Ronan Chabot and his SMG buggy (+2'46") lie third. Argentina's Orlando Terranova and his BMW X3 (+6'26") are fourth, followed by Leonid Novitskiy (+9'33") and his Mini.
Next comes Nasser Al-Attiyah's Qatar Red Bull Team buggy, with a 10'25" deficit. Then it's Lucio Álvarez and his Toyota (+12'27") followed by Krzysztof Holowczyc and his Mini (+14'00"). Carlos Souza and his Great Wall (+15'48") are ninth and Bernard Errandonea and his SMG buggy round off the Top 10. Today's major casualties were Carlos Sainz (eleventh in the overall), Nani Roma (fifteenth, 24'28" down) and Guerlain Chicherit (nineteenth, 30'50" down).
