South African Giniel De Villiers took the lead on day seven of the Dakar Rally after Volkswagen team-mate Carlos Sainz lost nearly five minutes in the sand dunes of Mauritania.
Spaniard Sainz, a former world rally champion, trails De Villiers by one minute and 39 seconds after coming home third as the rally passed from Zouerat to Atar.
De Villiers took the stage win, with France's former winner Stephane Peterhansel second in the Mitsubishi and Sainz in third.
De Villiers admitted the conditions had made racing difficult but he was relieved the special stage had been shortened as the support helicopters could not fly in some areas because of sandstorms.
He said: 'This was a very difficult stage due to the lack of visibility. I've never experienced such a special stage. We drove blind without any point of reference.
'I was happy to hear that the stage was being shortened. We got a bit lost in the beginning but the rest went on okay. It is important not to get stranded in sand.'
Portuguese driver Carlos Sousa fell out with German co-driver Andreas Schulz after their VW was stuck on one of the dunes.
Sousa drove off without Schulz but later waited for his co-driver, who had hitched a lift on one of the support vehicles, to catch up with him before resuming the day's stage.
Frenchman Cyril Despres, on the Gauloises KTM, took the stage win in the motorcycle category from Norway's Pal-Anders Ullevalseter (KTM) and Despres' fellow Frenchman and team-mate David Casteu.
Spaniard Marc Coma retained his overall lead on the Repsol KTM after finishing the stage in fifth.
Dutchman Hans Stacey (MAN) took the stage seven win in the truck category and now leads by two hours and 16 minutes.
The competitors take the day off tomorrow before the rally continues on Sunday with a special stage of 589km as the route goes from Atar to Tichit.
ATAR, January 12 (Dakar Rally 2007)
Leading final positions after Stage 7 (Zouerat-Atar, 580km):
Cars: 1 Giniel De Villiers (Rsa) Volkswagen 4hrs 00mins 46secs, 2 Stephane Peterhansel (Fra) Mitsubishi 4:03:32, 3 Carols Sainz (Spa) Volkswagen 4:05:36, 4 Hiroshi Masuoka (Jpn) Mitsubishi 4:11:04, 5 Nasser saleh Al Attiyah (Qat) BMW 4:12:30, 6 Luc Alphand (Fra) Mitsubishi 4:13:55, 7 Krzysztof Holowczyc (Pol) Nissan 4:38:07, 8 Bernard Errandonea (Fra) Buggy 4:39:31, 9 Jean-Louis Schlesser (Fra) Schles-Ford-Raid 4:47:16, 10 Pascal Thomasse (Fra) Buggy 4:50:20, 11 Mark Miller (USA) Volkswagen 4:59:43, 12 Stephane Henrard (Bel) Volkswagen 5:19:59, 13 Robby Gordon (USA) Hummer 5:23:23, 14 Paul Belmondo (Fra) Nissan 5:28:49, 15 Jose Luis Monterde (Spa) BMW 5:29:01
Bikes: 1 Cyril Despres (Fra) KTM 4hrs 30mins 42secs, 2 Pal Anders Ullevalseter (Nor) KTM 4:33:28, 3 David Casteu (Fra) KTM 4:35:18, 4 Giovanni Sala (Ita) KTM 4:39:29, 5 Isidre Esteve Pujol (Spa) KTM 4:41:44, 6 Marc Coma (Spa) KTM 4:43:04, 7 Einars Vinters (Lat) KTM 4:44:24, 8 Francisco Lopez (Chi) Honda 4:46:35, 9 Thierry Bethys (Fra) Honda 4:50:05, 10 Helder Rodrigues (Por) Yamaha 4:53:33, 11 Fabien Planet (Fra) KTM 4:59:27, 12 Chris Blais (USA) KTM 5:01:36, 13 Jacek Czachor (Pol) KTM 5:02:28, 14 Michel Marchini (Fra) Yamaha 5:02:29, 15 Ruben Faria (Por) Yamaha 5:07:17
Leading Overall Positions after Stage 7:
Cars: 1 Giniel De Villiers (Rsa) Volkswagen 20hrs 04mins 01secs, 2 Carlos Sainz (Spa) Volkswagen 20:05:40, 3 Stephane Peterhansel (Fra) Mitsubishi 20:28:39, 4 Luc Alphand (Fra) Mitsubishi 20:37:54, 5 Hiroshi Masuoka (Jpn) Mitsubishi 21:15:31, 6 Jean-Louis Schlesser (Fra) Schles-Ford-Raid 21:16:10, 7 Nasser saleh Al Attiyah (Qat) BMW 21:36:06, 8 Mark Miller (USA) Volkswagen 21:54:40, 9 Carlos Sousa (Por) Volkswagen 22:42:27, 10 Jose Luis Monterde (Spa) BMW 24:07:52, 11 Krzysztof Holowczyc (Pol) Nissan 24:17:33, 12 Stephane Henrard (Bel) Volkswagen 24:26:37, 13 Bernard Errandonea (Fra) Buggy 24:58:34, 14 Pascal Thomasse (Fra) Buggy 25:11:04, 15 Miguel Barbosa (Por) Proto 25:11:52
Bikes: 1 Marc Coma (Spa) KTM 22hrs 38mins 34secs, 2 Isidre Esteve Pujol (Spa) KTM 22:49:21, 3 David Casteu (Fra) KTM 23:15:27, 4 Cyril Despres (Fra) KTM 23:23:30, 5 Chris Blais (USA) KTM 23:44:45, 6 Giovanni Sala (Ita) KTM 24:08:02, 7 Francisco Lopez (Chi) Honda 24:09:17, 8 Helder Rodrigues (Por) Yamaha 24:13:31, 9 Pal Anders Ullevalseter (Nor) KTM 24:14:40, 10 Frans Verhoeven (Hol) KTM 24:18:15, 11 Michel Marchini (Fra) Yamaha 24:35:46, 12 Einars Vinters (Lat) KTM 24:54:48, 13 Jacek Czachor (Pol) KTM 25:02:38, 14 Jaroslav Katrinak (Svk) KTM 25:13:24, 15 Thierry Bethys (Fra) Honda 25:18:12
