Dakar top 15 after stage 2.

Volkswagen team mates Carlos Sainz, Michel Perin and Giniel De Villiers, Dirk Von Zitzewitz moved into the top 2 places of this year's Dakar yesterday on the Santa Rosa de la Pampa to Puerto Madryn stage. Nasser Saleh Al Attiyah, Tina Thorner in their BMW X3 CC have dropped from 1st overall to 4th overall.
With another 13 stages to complete through some of the toughest tourain in South America the final leaderboard will most likely look completely different, it is nice to see German manufacturers doing so well at present though!

1.	Carlos Sainz, Michel Perin	Volkswagen Touareg
2.	Giniel De Villiers, Dirk Von Zitzewitz	Volkswagen Touareg
3.	Stephane Peterhansel, Jean-Paul Cottret	Mitsubishi Racing Lancer
4.	Nasser Saleh Al Attiyah, Tina Thorner	BMW X3 CC
5.	Joan "Nani" Roma, Lucas Cruz Senra	Mitsubishi Racing Lancer
6.	Luc Alphand, Gilles Picard	Mitsubishi Racing Lancer
7.	Mark Miller, Ralph Pitchford	Volkswagen Touareg
8.	Orlando Terranova, Alain Guehennec	BMW X3 CC
9.	Krzysztof Holowczyc, Jean-Marc Fortin	Nissan Navara
10.	Robby Gordon, Andy Grider	Hummer H3
11.	Guilherme Spinelli, Marcelo Vivolo	Mitsubishi Pajero
12.	Leonid Novitskiy, Oleg Tyupenkin	BMW X3 CC
13.	Peter Van Merksteijn, Eddy Chevaillier	BMW X3 CC
14.	Thierry Magnaldi, Guy Leneveu	SMG Porsche
15.	Balazs Szalay, Laszlo Bunkoczi	Opel Antara RR

Dakar leaderboard after stage 1

The top 10 positions in this year's Dakar rally (after stage 1) are as follows:~
1. Al-Attiyah, Thörner BMW X3CC 2h36m15s
2. Sainz, Périn Volkswagen Race Touareg + 2:17
3. de Villiers, von Zitzewitz Volkswagen Race Touareg + 2:40
4. Miller, Pitchford Volkswagen Race Touareg + 4:21
5. Alphand, Picard Mitsubishi Racing Lancer + 4:44
6. Peterhansel, Cottret Mitsubishi Racing Lancer + 4:54
7. Terranova, Guehennec BMW X3CC + 5:09
8. Roma, Cruz Senra Mitsubishi Racing Lancer + 5:11
9. Holowczyc, Fortin Nissan Navara + 7:44
10. van Merksteijn, Chevaillier BMW X3CC + 10:39

Dieter Depping and Timo Gottschalk in their Volkswagen Race Touareg are 80th overall an hour and 31 mins behind the leader after a first stage filled with enermous highs and lows. Having lead for most of the way an electrical fault struck their Touareg abd sent them spiralling down the leader board. A philosophical Depping said "The start of the first stage ran positively. We found our pace quickly and were able to maintain it. I felt very comfortable in the Race Touareg again. However, 80 kilometres before the finish we had a technical and obvious electrical problem. The engine wouldn´t rev above 2,000 rpm anymore and so we lost an hour. Some of this also because we attempted to repair the problem with what we had on board and lost additional time as a result. However, all is not lost. The Dakar Rally still has a lot of challenges in store for us and our rivals."

Stage 2 Santa Rosa de la Pampa to Puerto Madryn starts today and offers over 235 kms of competitive driving to the teams. Volkswagen are hoping to capitalise on their excellent start (Depping will be hoping to claw some time back!!) whilst Nasser Al-Attiyah & Tina Thörner in their BMW X3CC will be hoping to extend their lead over former World Rally Champiuon Carlos Sainz.

Dakar 2009

Tomorrow sees the start of the 2009 Dakar {link}.
German manufacturers are well represented on the entry list with the works Volkswagens starting the event as joing favourites for outright victory. Below is a list of the top 20 starters (in the car section) plus other notable German powered vehicles.

Cars in bold are pictured in this post, underlined means there's a link through to the team's website.

300	Stephane Peterhansel Jean-Paul Cottret		Mitsubishi Lancer
301	Carlos Sainz, Michel Perin		Volkswagen Touareg
302	Nasser Saleh Al Attiyah, Tina Thorner		BMW X3 CC
303	Luc Alphand, Gilles Picard		Mitsubishi Lancer
304	Joan "Nani" Roma, Lucas Cruz Senra		Mitsubishi Lancer
305	Giniel De Villiers, Dirk Von Zitzewitz		Volkswagen Touareg
306	Guerlain Chicherit, Matthieu Baumel		BMW X3 CC
307	Dieter Depping, Timo Gottschalk		Volkswagen Touareg
308	Mark Miller, Ralph Pitchford		Volkswagen Touareg
309	Robby Gordon, Andy Grider		Hummer H3
310	Hiroshi Masuoka, Pascal Maimon		Mitsubishi Lancer
312	Christian Lavieille		Proto Dessoude
313	Miguel Barbosa, Miguel Ramalho		BMW X3
314	Stephane Henrard, Serge Bruynkens		Volkswagen Buggy HRT TDI
315	Orlando Terranova, Alain Guehennec		BMW X3 CC
316	Leonid Novitskiy, Oleg Tyupenkin		BMW X3 CC
317	Krzysztof Holowczyc, Jean-Marc Fortin		Nissan Navara
318	Peter Van Merksteijn, Eddy Chevaillier		BMW X3 CC
319	Jean De Azevedo, Youssef Haddad		Mitsubishi Pajero
320	Thierry Magnaldi, Guy Leneveu		Buggy SMG Porsche
325	Yvan Muller		Buggy SMG MONO Porsche
329	Balazs Szalay, Laszlo Bunkoczi		Opel Antara V6 RR
330	Rene Kuipers, Filipe Palmeiro		BMW X3 CC
335	Alfie Cox, Jurgen Schroder		Buggy SMG Porsche
347	Ricardo Leal Dos Santos, Filipe Palmeiro		BMW X5 CC
360	Erik Van Loon, Marc Wams		Volkswagen Buggy HRT TDI
361	Albert Michiels, Cedric Legein		Volkswagen Buggy HRT TDI
381	Jean-Pascal Besson, Yves Kornstein		Mercedes M Class
385	Etienne Smulevici, Jean-Jacques Martinez		Buggy SMG Porsche
386	Christian Barbier, Jean-Michel Richaud		Mitsubishi Pajero
387	Eric Bernard, Jean-Noel Cornuaille		BMW X3
395	Javier Herrador, Victor Vico		BMW X5
417	Werner Zoetaert, Katrien Boussier		Audi TT Buggy
455	Mark Dutton, Simon Dutton		Buggy Bremont Audi
492	Daniel Saskin, Damir Bruneruan		Opel Antara V6 RR

Dakar Cancelled.

The 2008 running of the Dakar Rally has been cancelled due to terrorist threats. With organisers unable to guarantee competitors safety on as many as nine stages they were left with little option but to cancel the event. Works teams and privateers had invested massive amounts of time and money into preparing for the event but all agreed that terrorist threats made the planned event impossible.
The Red Bull Volkswagen Touareg team were amongst the favourites for outright victory and had been hoping to add the Dakar to their FIA championship victories of 2007. Team boss Kris Nissen supported the organisers completely believing that competitor safety is paramount. This despite Volkswagen having invested an estimated 23 million pounds on developing their Race Touareg and team for the cancelled event.
The future of the Dakar rally remains unclear; many privateer teams are unable and unwilling to commit the huge funds required to an event that may be cancelled due to terrorist threat again. Works teams like Volkswagen are also expected to view future events with a more critical eye before committing the resources required to compete in a 15 day desert marathon.

Red Bull and El Matador.

Carlos Sainz (El Matador) has won the FIA Marathon Rally World Championship {link} in his Red Bull sponsored Volkswagen Race Touareg. Carlos Sainz won the FIA title by finishing 2nd overall on the recent UAE Desert Challenge. Giniel de Villiers finished in second overall in the championship, once again driving a Volkswagen Race Touareg. Volkswagen Motorsport {link} also secured the team’s championship in the FIA Marathon Rally World Championship.