De Villiers wins as Sainz looses ground to Al-Attiyah

Giniel de Villiers took his first stage win of the 2011 edition of the Rally Dakar. The South African from Volkswagen was the quickest in the 10th stage as the caravan returned to Argentina. Carlos Sainz had a nightmare day in the dunes and lost precious time to his team-mate Nasser Al-Attiyah.

In fact the Spaniard thinks he now needs a miracle to have a chance of retaining is crown of Dakar champion. Sainz lost further 9m17s on the Qatari and is now lying 12m37s behind his Volkswagen team-mate.

" If Nasser doesn't make a mistake, it's over," admitted Sainz who had a puncture and gearbox problems during the 862km (with 176km special) stage.

The two Volkswagen drivers were fourth and fifth respectively, behind de Villiers Poland's Krzysztof Holowczyc (BMW) and French driver Stéphane Peterhansel (BMW).

In the bikes Marc Coma has moved a step closer of winning the 2011 Dakar Rally. The Spaniard won the tenth leg of the Rally and now has advantage of 18m10s over his closest rival, Frenchman Cyril Despres.