2009 Dakar : Volkswagen in first, second and third place

Leader : 305 - Giniel DE VILLIERS /Dirk VON ZITZEWITZ - Volkswagen Race Touareg 2

X-raid’s Sails Capital Racing Team’s Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah and Swedish co-driver Tina Thörner set the fastest time on the shortened 178km special stage from San Rafaël to Mendoza, but they missed a series of hidden way-points through the sand dunes early in the stage and the unfortunate penalty was exclusion from the rally.

January 8, 2009

Stage 6
SAN RAFAEL (Argentina) to MENDOZA (Argentina)
Road section: 76km - SS6: 178km - Road section: 371km
Total Distance: 625km

Following a turbulent sixth leg, Volkswagen now leads the Dakar Rally with three of its Race Touareg cars.

In the overall rankings, Giniel de Villiers/Dirk von Zitzewitz (ZA/D) are 7.39 minutes ahead of Carlos Sainz/Michel Périn (E/F) and 17.51 minutes ahead of Mark Miller/Ralph Pitchford (USA/ZA). Volkswagen has already led this year's Dakar Rally, from the second to the fourth leg.

All three Volkswagen drivers have now moved up one place overall after a day which kicked off with an extremely tough and selective 60-kilometre stretch of dunes and concluded with some easier dirt tracks. This is because the leading team of Nasser Al-Attiyah/Tina Thörner (Q/S) in a BMW X3 incurred some technical problems on the way from San Rafael to Mendoza in Argentina and took a short cut, missing several of the waypoints and consequently being excluded. This allowed Volkswagen to achieve a threefold leg victory, with Giniel de Villiers coming in ahead of Mark Miller and Carlos Sainz – yet another superb driving and navigating performance.

The German Volkswagen duo Dieter Depping/Timo Gottschalk (D/D), who came second yesterday, were less lucky. After incurring a technical fault, they were forced to stop and were towed to the bivouac by a Volkswagen race truck. Depping/Gottschalk are now ranked eleventh overall.

This turn of events means that Volkswagen now has a comfortable lead in the first half of the rally, with the three teams' closest challengers, Nani Roma/Lucas Cruz (E/E) in a Mitsubishi, trailing behind the front-runners by 31.18 minutes.

Stage 6 : Classification

Pos	DriverCo-Driver	Nat	Vehicle	Cat	TotalTime	DiffLeader
1	Giniel DE VILLIERS Dirk VON ZITZEWITZ	AFS D	VOLKSWAGEN RACE TOUAREG	T1.2	2:12:33	:
2	Mark MILLER Ralph PITCHFORD	USA AFS	VOLKSWAGEN RACE TOUAREG	T1.2	2:12:53	+0:20
3	Carlos SAINZ Michel PERIN	E F	VOLKSWAGEN RACE TOUAREG	T1.2	2:16:03	+3:30
4	Stephane PETERHANSEL Jean-Paul COTTRET	F F	MITSUBISHI RACING LANCER	T1.2	2:20:40	+8:07
5	Joan ROMA Lucas CRUZ	E E	MITSUBISHI RACING LANCER	T1.2	2:21:46	+9:13
6	Krzysztof HOLOWCZYC Jean-Marc FORTIN	POL B	NISSAN NAVARA	T1.1	2:27:25	+14:52
7	Ivar Erik TOLLEFSEN Quin EVANS	N GB	NISSAN NAVARA	T1.1	2:44:40	+32:07
8	Robby GORDON Andy GRIDER	USA USA	HUMMER H3	OP1	2:44:56	+32:23
9	Matthias KAHLE Thomas SCHUENEMANN	D D	HONDA BUGGY	T1.3	2:45:20	+32:47
10	Thierry MAGNALDI Guy LENEVEU	F F	SMG PORSCHE BUGGY	T1.3	2:53:39	+41:06
11	Pascal THOMASSE Pascal LARROQUE	F F	BUGGY	T1.3	2:56:32	+43:59
12	Tonnie VAN DEIJNE Wouter ROSEGAAR	NL NL	MITSUBISHI L200	T1.1	3:00:01	+47:28
13	Jean DE AZEVEDO Youssef HADDAD	BRA BRA	MITSUBISHI PAJERO	T1.1	3:08:24	+55:51
14	Bob GORDON Willaim HIGMAN	USA USA	HUMMER H3	OP1	3:14:30	+1:01:57
15	Miroslav ZAPLETAL Tomas OUREDNICEK	CZ CZ	MITSUBISHI L200	T1.1	3:15:42	+1:03:09
16	Tim CORONEL Tom CORONEL	NL NL	BOWLER NEMESIS	T1.1	3:16:35	+1:04:02
17	Alexey BERKUT Anton NIKOLEAV	RUS RUS	MITSUBISHI PAJERO EVOLUTION	T1.1	3:16:36	+1:04:03
18	Jerome PELICHET Eugenie DECRE	F CHL	BOWLER WILDCAT	T1.1	3:16:46	+1:04:13
19	Orlando TERRANOVA Alain GUEHENNEC	RA F	BMW X3 CC	T1.2	3:18:15	+1:05:42
20	Rene KUIPERS Filipe PALMEIRO	NL P	BMW X3 CC	T1.2	3:18:54	+1:06:21

Overall : Classification

Pos	DriverCo-Driver	Nat	Vehicle	Cat	TotalTime	DiffLeader
1	Giniel DE VILLIERS Dirk VON ZITZEWITZ	AFS D	VOLKSWAGEN RACE TOUAREG	T1.2	20:59:34	:
2	Carlos SAINZ Michel PERIN	E F	VOLKSWAGEN RACE TOUAREG	T1.2	21:07:13	+7:39
3	Mark MILLER Ralph PITCHFORD	USA AFS	VOLKSWAGEN RACE TOUAREG	T1.2	21:17:25	+17:51
4	Joan ROMA Lucas CRUZ	E E	MITSUBISHI RACING LANCER	T1.2	21:30:52	+31:18
5	Stephane PETERHANSEL Jean-Paul COTTRET	F F	MITSUBISHI RACING LANCER	T1.2	21:34:01	+34:27
6	Robby GORDON Andy GRIDER	USA USA	HUMMER H3	OP1	22:11:21	+1:11:47
7	Krzysztof HOLOWCZYC Jean-Marc FORTIN	POL B	NISSAN NAVARA	T1.1	23:32:49	+2:33:15
8	Ivar Erik TOLLEFSEN Quin EVANS	N GB	NISSAN NAVARA	T1.1	23:49:31	+2:49:57
9	Orlando TERRANOVA Alain GUEHENNEC	RA F	BMW X3 CC	T1.2	23:50:09	+2:50:35
10	Rene KUIPERS Filipe PALMEIRO	NL P	BMW X3 CC	T1.2	25:19:13	+4:19:39
11	Dieter DEPPING Timo GOTTSCHALK	D D	VOLKSWAGEN RACE TOUAREG	T1.2	25:29:55	+4:30:21
12	Laszlo PALIK Gabor DARAZSI	HON HON	NISSAN NAVARA	T1.1	26:15:27	+5:15:53
13	Tonnie VAN DEIJNE Wouter ROSEGAAR	NL NL	MITSUBISHI L200	T1.1	26:17:02	+5:17:28
14	Miroslav ZAPLETAL Tomas OUREDNICEK	CZ CZ	MITSUBISHI L200	T1.1	27:01:30	+6:01:56
15	Boris BUKATOV Sergey DODONOV	RUS RUS	MITSUBISHI PAJERO	T1.1	29:03:02	+8:03:28
16	Patrick SIREY JOL Paul VIDAL	F F	BOWLER WILDCAT	T1.1	29:41:33	+8:41:59
17	Ilya KUZNETSOV Andrey NESHIN	RUS RUS	MITSUBISHI L200	T1.1	31:09:43	+10:10:09
18	Nicolas GIBON Akira MIURA	F J	TOYOTA VDJ 200	T2.2	31:21:32	+10:21:58
19	Bruce GARLAND Hiroaki SUZUKI	AUS AUS	ISUZU D-MAX	T1.2	31:31:41	+10:32:07
20	Xavier FOJ Joan PUJOLAR	E E	TOYOTA LAND CRUISER	T2.2	31:52:51	+10:53:17