Nasser Al-Attiyah disappointed winner

Today's stage linking San Miguel de Tucuman to San Salvador de Jujuy included a special stage divided into two sections separated by 170 km of connection. It was Nasser Al-Attiyah who was the fastest and finished the first part 1'21" ahead of his teammate. Carlos Sainz, leader since the start in Buenos Aires and 1'47" in the BMW X3 CC of Stéphane Peterhansel.

The second section of the 106 km long special – contested on dirt tracks plunging into the forest – saw Sainz take almost a minute back from his teammate Al-Attiyah. “I am more or less happy with my day” whispered the Spaniard. “We lost a minute and a half on Nasser at the end of the first part before recovering the lost time by attacking more during the final part without navigation”. An insufficient performance to prevent the Qatari from winning his first stage victory with a 25" lead over the Spaniard and 59" over Stéphane Peterhansel.

However, Al-Attiyah was not satisfied with his performance at the finish: " I am very disappointed. We experienced the same problem as yesterday. We completely lost our power after 200 kilometers. I don't understand. It's been three days now. I took 1'30 from Carlos during the first game. Then, I lost my lead on the technical part where we are often in 1st, 2nd and 3rd. We need to fix this problem. I don't care about our time or the stage victory. Tomorrow we will have dunes and soft sand and that will be very serious.”

In the general classification, two VW Race Touaregs occupy the controls of the rally. Sainz is ahead of Al-Attiyah by 3'34", now 2nd, and Peterhansel by 4"19. Tomorrow, the competitors will attack the climb in the Andes Cordillera and a passage to 4800 meters of altitude for a judged finish in Calama in Chile.