COPIAPÓ, Chile — World Rally Championship veteran Carlos Sainz of Spain tightened his grip on overall 1st-place in standings of the Dakar Rally with a 2nd-place finish in the Race Touareg on Stage 8 Sunday.
Frenchman Stéphane Peterhansel won, his third stage victory, in a BMW, clocking 5 hours, 6 minutes, 5 seconds. Sainz's Volkswagen was 45 seconds behind. American driver Mike Miller, also in a Volkswagen, was 3rd as action resumed on Sunday after a rest day in Antofagasta, Chile.
Sainz has built his lead with consistent top-three finishes but has no stage victories to his credit. He finished 2nd in stages 1, 3, 5, 6 and 8 and was 3rd in Stage 7 Friday.
Miller and a third Volkswagen driver, Nasser Al-Attiyah of Qatar, each have one stage victory. Al-Attiyah is 2nd in overall standings.
Another American driver, Robby Gordon, scored a victory in Stage 4 last week. He suffered electrical problems in Friday's Stage 7, finishing 24th and dropping to 10th in overall standings.
Gordon won his class and finished 3rd overall in last year's Dakar in a Hummer.
Stage 9 takes competitors from Copiapó to La Serena. The 14th and final stage is scheduled to bring racers back to the starting point in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
The event, previously known as the Paris-Dakar Rally, was relocated from its Europe-Africa setting last season to South America. It features competition on a variety of surfaces for cars, motorcycles and trucks.
Sainz is a two-time (1990, 1992) champion of the World Rally Championship. This is his fifth attempt in the Dakar; he was leading last year's event until a crash eliminated him in Stage 12. He led a 1-2-3 VW sweep in winning the Silk Way Rally, which runs from Kazan, Russia, to Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, in September.
Inside Line says: Volkswagen continues to dominate Dakar. — David Green, Correspondent
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