Dakar Rally: Stephane Peterhansel moves into lead

The 10-time winner's X-raid Mini was quickest by 2m35s over Giniel de Villiers' Toyota, giving Peterhansel a 2m38s overall advantage as the South African moved up to second.

Overnight leader Carlos Sainz was worst affected by a tricky dune 47 miles into the stage. Most chose to go around it, but Sainz was among those to attempt to tackle it directly and lost the course in the process.

The former World Rally champion, who suspected a GPS problem, consequently lost 18 minutes and tumbled to 11th overall.

His Red Bull Buggy team-mate Nasser Al-Attiyah fared little better in the dune and is now back to sixth place, 10 minutes down on Peterhansel.

Guerlain Chicherit was delayed by half an hour when his SMG Buggy sustained a puncture. But his team-mate Ronan Chabot is only eight seconds behind de Villiers in third.

Robby Gordon's so-far disastrous 2013 Dakar got worse as he lost a further 19 minutes to the leaders, leaving him 49 minutes adrift already in his Hummer.

Leading positions after stage two: Pos Driver Team/Car Time/Gap 1. Stephane Peterhansel X-raid Mini 3h00m20s 2. Giniel de Villiers Imperial Toyota + 2m38s 3. Ronan Chabot SMG Buggy + 3m46s 4. Orlando Terranova X-raid BMW + 6m26s 5. Leonid Novitskiy X-raid Mini + 9m33s 6. Nasser Al-Attiyah Red Bull Buggy + 10m25s 7. Lucio Alvarez Overdrive Toyota + 12m27s 8. Krzysztof Holowczyc X-raid Mini + 14m00s 9. Carlos Sousa Great Wall + 15m48s 10. Bernard Errandonea SMG Buggy + 16m15s Leading stage two times: 1. Stephane Peterhansel X-raid Mini 2h35m38s 2. Giniel de Villiers Imperial Toyota + 2m35s 3. Ronan Chabot SMG Buggy + 4m52s 4. Orlando Terranova X-raid BMW + 5m26s 5. Leonid Novitskiy X-raid Mini + 9m33s 6. Nasser Al-Attiyah Red Bull Buggy + 11m37s 7. Lucio Alvarez Overdrive Toyota + 13m45s 8. Krzysztof Holowczyc X-raid Mini + 14m00s 9. Carlos Sousa Great Wall + 14m33s 10. Bernard Errandonea SMG Buggy + 14m36s