Al Attiyah takes first Dakar win

BMW secured their first triumph of the 2007 Dakar Rally after Qatari driver Nasser Al Attiyah surged to victory on the tenth stage in Mauritania.

Al Attiyah completed the 366km stage, a loop starting and ending in Nema, in three hours 49 minutes 48 seconds to finish almost half a minute ahead of Mitsubishi's Hiroshi Masuoka.

'We really performed well on today's stage and maintained a good speed throughout,' said Al Attiyah.

'I'm delighted to have picked up my first special stage victory, it's a huge moment in my career.'

The BMW X3 driver, who moves fourth in the overall standings on the back of his stage victory, said the result was a significant achievement for his team, who have struggled against the might of the Volkswagens and Mitsubishis up to this point.

He added: 'People know that we don't have a car that is on a level playing field with the big teams' vehicles.

'Looking at the general rankings and the time I need to make up on [Jean-Louis] Schlesser for third place, it's going to be difficult.

'I'm going to carry on at the same pace. Today we took back seven minutes on Schlesser. There is still plenty of the Dakar to go, so we are going to try and avoid any mishaps. Anything's possible!'

American Mark Miller brought the first VW home in third, ahead of Mitsubishi veteran Stefan Peterhansel, who remains at the head of the standings after snatching the lead following the dramatic events on the previous stage that saw the pace-setting VW duo of Carlos Sainz and Giniel De Villiers tumble down the order after mechanical problems.

Spaniard Sainz, who lost over six hours after suffering electrical problems yesterday, finished the stage in fifth, while reigning champion Luc Alphand, second to team-mate Peterhansel in the overall standings, was sixth.

Peterhansel now leads Alphand by nearly ten minutes, with third-placed Schlesser over 90 minutes further back after bringing his Ford-powered Buggy home in seventh place today.

'Everything is fine after this stage, both the car and the bloke,' said eight-time winner Peterhansel.

'The car really worked well over a winding course with soft sand ruts.

'It was physically exhausting. We just wanted to position ourselves and arrive in a good place for the half-day tomorrow. After that, things will get serious again.'

Yamaha rider Helder Rodrigues broke KTM's stranglehold in the motorbike category after securing his first-ever stage win on African soil.

The Portuguese rider completed the loop in 4:12.55, beating overall leader and reigning champion Marc Coma (KTM Repsol) into second pace.

Cyril Despres brought the KTM Gauloises home in third place to consolidate second place overall, although the Frenchman remains the better part of an hour adrift of Coma.

Arjan Brouwer (GINAF) secured his first-ever stage victory in the truck category, while overall leader Hans Stacey (MAN) came home in a steady if unspectacular seventh place to maintain a near three-hour advantage at the head of the standings.

Tomorrow's stage from Nema to Ayoun sees the competitors only having to complete a 280km connection before returning to timed action again on Thursday.

NEMA, January 16 (2007 Dakar Rally)
Leading Final Positions after Stage 10 (Nema-Nema; Special Stage: 366km)
Cars: 1 Nasser Saleh Al Attiyah (Qat) BMW 3hrs 49mins 48secs, 2 Hiroshi Masuoka (Jpn) Mitsubishi at 28secs, 3 Mark Miller (USA) Volkswagen at 01:49, 4 Stephane Peterhansel (Fra) Mitsubishi at 02:08, 5 Carlos Sainz (Spa) Volkswagen at 02:48, 6 Luc Alphand (Fra) Mitsubishi at 04:14, 7 Jean-Louis Schlesser (Fra) Schlesser at 07:26, 8 Nani Roma (Spa) Mitsubishi at 08:29, 9 Jutta Kleinschmidt (Ger) BMW at 18:25, 10 Sergey Shmakov (Rus) Buggy at 19:35, 11 Freddy Loix (Bel) Buggy at 20:51, 12 Jose Luis Monterde (Spa) X-Raid BMW at 21:46, 13 Miguel Barbosa (Por) Proto at 22:58, 14 Stephane Henrard (Bel) Volkswagen at 23:34, 15 Giniel de Villiers (Rsa) Volkswagen 23:50
Bikes: 1 Helder Rodrigues (Por) Yamaha 4hrs 12mins 55secs, 2 Marc Coma (Spa) KTM at 44secs, 3 Cyril Despres (Fra) KTM at 00:51, 4 Janis Vinters (Lat) KTM at 2:53, 5 David Casteu (Fra) KTM at 4:41, 6 Thierry Bethys (Fra) Honda at 7:01, 7 Chris Blais (USA) KTM at 7:01, 8 Michel Marchini (Fra) Yamaha at 7:27, 9 Jean De Azevedo (Bra) KTM at 8:46, 10 Pal Anders Ullevalseter (Nor) KTM at 12:58, 11 Frans Verhoeven (Ned) KTM at 14:47, 12 Paulo Goncalves (Por) Honda at 17:29, 13 Isidre Esteve Pujol (Spa) KTM at 20:57, 14 Henk Knuiman (Ned) Honda at 26:43
Leading Overall Positions after Stage 10
Cars: 1 Stephane Peterhansel (Fra) Mitsubishi 37hrs 35mins 19secs, 2 Luc Alphand (Fra) Mitsubishi at 9mins 56secs, 3 Jean-Louis Schlesser (Fra) Schlesser at 1:30:50, 4 Nasser Saleh Al Attiyah (Qat) BMW at 2:00:13, 5 Hiroshi Masuoka (Jpn) Mitsubishi at 2:12:04, 6 Mark Miller (USA) Volkswagen 2:14:07, 7 Carlos Sousa (Por) Volkswagen at 5:20:47, 8 Robby Gordon (USA) Hummer at 6:52:54, 9 Stephane Henrard (Bel) Volkswagen at 7:40:21, 10 Carlos Sainz (Spa) Volkswagen at 7:45:59, 11 Bernard Errandonea (Fra) Buggy at 8:11:14, 12 Giniel de Villiers (Rsa) Volkswagen at 8:28:19, 13 Nani Roma (Spa) Mitsubishi at 9:19:09, 14 Sergey Shmakov (Rus) Buggy at 9:52:16, 15 Jutta Kleinschmidt (Ger) BMW at 10:07:38
Bikes: 1 Marc Coma (Spa) KTM 40hrs 55mins 10secs, 2 Cyril Despres (Fra) KTM at 54mins 43secs, 3 David Casteu (Fra) KTM at 1:15:12, 4 Chris Blais (USA) KTM at 1:40:37, 5 Pal Anders Ullevalseter (Nor) KTM at 2:12:20, 6 Helder Rodrigues (Por) Yamaha at 2:52:16, 7 Isidre Esteve Pujol (Spa) KTM at 2:52:24, 8 Janis Vinters (Lat) KTM at 3:32:42, 9 Michel Marchini (Fra) Yamaha at 3:39:45, 10 Thierry Bethys (Fra) Honda at 3:54:51, 11 Jaroslav Katrinak (Svk) KTM at 4:05:53, 12 Jacek Czachor (Pol) KTM at 4:11:36, 13 Henk Knuiman (Ned) Honda at 4:53:13, 14 Fabien Planet (Fra) KTM at 5:42:17, 15 Miran Stanovnik (Slo) KTM at 6:56:16