Schlesser wins, Mitsubishi now lead

Schlesser, in his Ford-powered buggy, completed the 494 kms of the stage in over five and a half hours, just 13 seconds ahead of reigning champion Luc Alphand in the first Mitsubishi.

Teammate Peterhansel was third some four minutes adrift, but that was enough for the eight-time winner to move into the lead of the event after the top Volkswagen drivers hit trouble.

Mitsubishi, who ironically are yet to win a stage this year, now hold a commanding lead with less than a week of the event to run. Peterhansel leads by nearly eight minutes from Alphand, while Volkswagen's drivers seem to be out of contention.

South African Giniel de Villiers, who yesterday extended his lead in one of the Dakar's crucial stages, lost all his chances of fighting for victory after a malfunction of the turbo set the engine of his car on fire before he reached the first control point.

De Villiers was stranded for a considerable amount of time before his assistance team arrived. His car then had to be towed to the Nema bivouac and, at the time of writing, the Volkswagen driver was still far from the finish line.

The German manufacturer's poor day was made even worse when Carlos Sainz, fourth until yesterday, was hit by electronic problems and was unable to restart his car. Like de Villiers, he is yet to make it to the end of the stage.

The rally will enter Mali for tomorrow's stage, which replaces the Nema-Timbuktu special initially planned but altered due to safety reasons. 

Stage 9 classification:

Pos Driver       Make           Time
 1. Schlesser    Schlesser   5h32:03
 2. Alphand      Mitsubishi  +  0.13
 3. Peterhansel  Mitsubishi  +  4:14
 4. Masuoka      Mitsubishi  +  8:38
 5. Roma         Mitsubishi  + 14:27
 6. Al Attiyah   BMW         + 14:34
 7. Sousa        Volkswagen  + 30:21
 8. Kleinschmidt BMW         + 31:09
 9. Shmakov      Buggy       + 31:45
10. Miller       Volkswagen  + 31:52

Overall standings after stage 9 (provisional):

Pos Driver       Make             Time
 1. Peterhansel  Mitsubishi   33h23:43
 2. Alphand      Mitsubishi  +    7:50
 3. Al Attiyah   BMW         + 1h23:21
 4. Schlesser    Schlesser   + 1h25:32
 5. Masuoka      Mitsubishi  + 2h13:44
 6. Miller       Volkswagen  + 2h14:26
 7. Sousa        Volkswagen  + 4h11.29