Sainz crashes out of Dakar

16 Jan 2009, 6:00 AM

Carlos Sainz, Dakar 2009 race leader, crashed out of the rally on Stage 12 when his Volkswagen tumbled into a ravine, robbing the double World Rally champion of a likely victory.

Your thoughts?

The Spaniard started the 12th stage with a 27-minute lead over his American Volkswagen teammate Mark Miller and was comfortably on course for a maiden win in the gruelling event with just three stages remaining.

However disaster struck after 79km of the 220km stage between Fiambala and La Rioja, handing Volkswagen teammate Giniel De Villiers the stage win and the overall lead.

"We couldn't see. The front wheels were in the hole and then we toppled over on the front and then the roof. I braked but I couldn't stop," Sainz, who hurt his right shoulder in the crash, explained.

Michel Perin, Sainz's co-driver, suffered a broken arm and both men were airlifted back to the bivouac at the stage's start in Fiambala.

"Luckily I wasn't driving fast. If we were attacking then it would not have been very pleasant," Sainz, who had won six of the stages of this year's event, added.

Perin was left ruing a missed turn and a road sign that was not as clear as he thought it should have been.

"We had made a small mistake in the first part," said Perin.

"We took the wrong direction at a Y crossing but it was not too bad because we did end up on the right trail.

"We were tailing (Volkswagen teammate) Giniel De Villiers who had started about 10 seconds after us so it was still sort of okay.

"Then there was a hidden waypoint with a wadi indicated as 'danger'. But it should have been indicated as 'extremely dangerous'.

"By the way, the car behind us, Nani Roma's (Mitsubishi) car, would have fallen in the same hole as we did if we had not been there already. I just have something broken in my arm, but I'm alright."

At the start of the stage, Sainz was 27 minutes and 31 seconds ahead of Miller with South African De Villiers almost 14 minutes further adrift in third.

De Villiers takes lead

It was De Villiers who eventually won the stage, also taking over top spot in the overall standings.

Miller finished in second spot, 16:17 off the South African's pace, and now lies 2:35 adrift in second place in the overall standings.

Sainz, who was competing in his third Dakar, with his best showing a ninth-place finish in 2007, was the latest in a long line of big names forced out of this year's race.

Stephane Peterhansel, defending champion, and his Mitsubishi teammates and fellow former winners Luc Alphand and Hiroshi Masuoka, all pulled out in the first week.

Early leader Nasser Al-Attiyah of Qatar, in a BMW, was disqualified.

[AFP]