News from Dakar

Dakar 2007

Sainz claims Eighth Stage Victory for Volkswagen

Mark Miller Finishes 3rd and Moves Closer to 4th for the Rally

Another stage victory for Volkswagen in the Dakar Rally: After yesterday’s exploit Carlos Sainz/Michel Périn (Spain/France) also won the 13th of 15 legs of the desert classic, a 458-kilometre section from Kayes in Mali to Tambacounda in Senegal

For Sainz, it marked as much as his fourth stage victory, for Volkswagen the eighth in the 29th Dakar Rally. The Spanish-French driver pairing in the Race Touareg was 26 seconds quicker than the French Mitsubishi driver Stéphane Peterhansel, who leads in the overall classification.

Mark Miller/Ralph Pitchford (USA/South Africa) in another Race Touareg set the day's third-best time with a 2.18-minute gap on the quick and dusty laterite tracks, defending their place as Volkswagen's best team in the field in fifth position overall. Two positions behind them is the Portuguese-German duo of Carlos Sousa/Andreas Schulz in a Race Touareg from Team Lagos who achieved the fourth-best time of the day

Giniel de Villiers/Dirk von Zitzewitz (South Africa/Germany) with a 10.37-minute gap finished the special stage on Friday in tenth place. They contested the special stage as the 22nd car out and in the dust kicked up by the cars starting in front of them almost had no opportunities for overtaking. Despite this, the duo improved by one position to eleventh place overall.