Dakar 2010 Stage 11: Goodbye Chile, hello Argentina

Carlos Sainz had two tire punctures and lost more than half of his lead time as the Dakar Rally left Chile and returned to Argentina on Wednesday.

A day after winning his first stage, Sainz finished ninth on the 137-mile route from Santiago across the Andes to San Juan. Sainz’s lead of more than 10 minutes was cut to just 4:28 ahead of Volkswagen teammate Nasser Al-Attiyah with three stages to go before the rally ends on Saturday in Buenos Aires.

“We had two slow punctures,” Sainz said. “We kept losing time and had to stop. … There were lots of trees on the stage and we hit quite a few of them.”

Guerlain Chicherit of France drove a BMW and won the 11th stage in 2:34:51. Orlando Terranova of Argentina in a Mitsubishi was second, 30 seconds back, and defending champion Giniel de Villiers of South Africa was third, 39 seconds behind in his VW.

Qatar’s Al-Attiyah was fourth, 1:41 back, and Spain’s Sainz was 7:19 off the pace.

American Mark Miller, driving a VW, is third overall, 23 minutes, 50 seconds behind Sainz. Miller placed fifth in the stage, 2:50 behind Chicherit.

NASCAR star Robby Gordon, driving a Hummer, is 10th overall, 5:41:38 behind Sainz. Gordon placed seventh in the stage.

Frans Verhoeven of the Netherlands won the motorcycle stage. Overall leader Cyril Despres was seventh and holds a commanding overall lead of 1:20:54 ahead of Pal Anders Ullevalseter of Norway.

Meanwhile, hospital officials in Chile said Italian motorcyclist Luca Manca was coming out of an induced coma after being taken off a respirator.

The 29-year-old Manca suffered serious head injuries when he fell from his bike last Thursday in northern Chile.
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SOURCES:

“Sainz leads teammate Al-Attiyah by 4 minutes in Dakar Rally with 3 stages left”
January 13th, 2010
Canadian Press

http://www.mjtimes.sk.ca/

http://www.mjtimes.sk.ca/Canada—World/Sports/2010-01-13/article-442031/Sainz-leads-teammate-Al-Attiyah-by-4-minutes-in-Dakar-Rally-with-3-stages-left/1

“Dakar – Live”

http://www.dakar.com/

http://www.dakar.com/us/DAKAR/2010/live.html