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Dakar: Gordon regains lead

US all-rounder and NASCAR Nextel Cup star Robbie Gordon has moved back into the lead of the Dakar Rally after completing the 123km Rabat-Agadir special stage in the fastest time with his VW Touareg

The American, a rookie on the event, assumed the lead back from Nissan's British ace Colin McRae who trailed home 11th after a puncture during his run across the first of the major African stages.

"The stage was beautiful," said McRae. "Over the first few km, it really looked like a world championship stage. But the navigation soon got complicated. It was not easy to anticipate them all. Unfortunately, we picked up a stone and got a puncture at the rear. It would have been impossible to carry on, so we changed the wheel and lost some time.

"But it is not important at this stage of the race. The important thing is that I have a very good feeling for the Pickup and that it is working well."

The Scot finished the stage 3m47s off the pace of the leader and now lies tenth overall behind all three of his Nissan Pickup team-mates.

Former motorcycle ace Stephane Peterhansel is second overall for Mitsubishi, nearly a minute behind Gordon but ahead of the second VW of Bruno Saby who was also third fastest on the stage, ahead of Luc Alphand and Jutta Kleinschmidt.

Tomorrow's stage sees the competitors head from Agadir to Smara as they tackle the longest special stage of the rally so far - 381km.


Gordon/von Zitzewitz, VW Touareg, 1h26m24s
Peterhansel/Cottret, Mitsubishi V60, 1h27m23s
Saby/Perin, VW Touareg, 1h27m38s
Alphand/Picard, Mitsubishi Pajero Evo, 1h27m56s
Kleinschmidt/Pons, VW Touareg, 1h28m56s
de Villiers/Lurquin, Nissan Pickup, 1h29m23s
Kankunnen/Repo, VW Touareg, 1h29m45s
de Mevius/Dubois, Nissan Pickup, 1h29m52s
Vatanen/Siviero, Nissan Pickup, 1h30m02s
McRae/Thorner, Nissan Pick Up, 1h30m10s

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