Audi in command
Perfect day yesterday for Audi in the Dakar. Stephane Peterhansel won the second stage – the fiftieth career stage win for 'Monsieur Dakar', equaling Ari Vatanen's record – and Carlos Sainz, third, took the lead in the general classification. The veteran Spaniard, who is chasing a fourth career win in the raid with the fourth different manufacturer after winning with Volkswagen, Peugeot and Mini, has an almost two-minute lead over Toyota driver Al-Rahji with Loeb third at four minutes and 17 seconds.
On the eve of the Dakar Nasser Al-Attiyah had given “three days” at Audi first “to go home”a prophecy that 'expires' with today's stage excluding the prologue. Carlos Sainz For now he doesn't give too much weight to the leadership in the general classification and despite being a big Real Madrid fan he quotes Atletico coach Diego Simeone: “I would have signed up to be ahead in the standings after the first stages – declared the Iberian as reported by today's edition of the Spanish sports newspaper AS – now I want to continue going 'stage by stage', as El Cholo Simeone says when he says that we need to proceed 'game by game'. I want to see if by starting 'from behind' we can perhaps gain further in terms of time.”
The second stage was difficult at the level navigation added Carlos Sainz and in terms of technical problems the crew that paid the price was precisely that of the winner of the last two editions Nasser Al-Attiyah who had to deal with problems with the rear steering arm. The third stage scheduled today includes 438 km of special stage from Al Duwadimi to Al Salamiya.
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