Volkswagen starts perfectly to second half of Dakar Rally

Volkswagen started the second week of the Dakar Rally exactly the way the first half on Friday before the rest day had ended: by securing a triple stage victory and maintaining its previous one-two-three lead. The day's best result was clinched yet again by Carlos Sainz/Michel Périn, who scored a fourth stage victory in the Race Touareg, thus further extending his overall lead.

On the eighth leg from Valparaíso to La Serena in Chile the German Volkswagen duo Dieter Depping/Timo Gottschalk reached the destination in second position with a 4.02-minute gap to Sainz/Périn; they were followed in third place ten seconds later by Mark Miller/Ralph Pitchford in the third of the blue Race Touareg vehicles.