Dakar: McRae takes lead

After ending Friday's special stage with the eighth best time, McRae moved his efforts up a gear in the Nissan to comfortably take the best time over Sunday's 10-kilometre long special stage at Granada to hold a six seconds lead over the Mitsubishi of Stephane Peterhansel.

"I had a lot of fun," said McRae. "The car is working very well and I'm very happy. I had a blast at driving this car this morning. The special was very nice for the spectators who got to see a very good show from all the competitors.

"Personally, I just wanted to go fast to be able to leave in the first position for tomorrow's stage between Rabat and Agadir, because I believe there won't be a lot of overtaking possibilities on the special."

Peterhansel believed that his chances of beating McRae had been hampered by his lowly position in the running order, having been just ninth overall after Friday's opening stage.

"The earth conditions are getting really difficult on the course," he said. "It's starting to look like sand and you lose a lot of power when accelerating. It would have been better to take off earlier in the first three positions to manage a good time.

"We were slightly too far behind. Concerning the driving, I really enjoyed myself and it gave us courage for the long liaison that comes now. The serious stuff starts tomorrow. It'll be a short special but with a technical part in the mountains. We have to avoid mistakes."

The teams now head to Rabat, where they are due to arrive this evening, before Monday's 666km run to Agadir in the south of Morocco. The day will include a mammoth 123km long special stage.



1. McRae/Thorner (Nissan) 7m48s
2. Peterhansal/Cottret (Mitsubishi) 7m54s
3. Vatanen/Siviero (Nissan) 7m58s
4. De Villiers/Lurquin (Nissan) 8m01s
5. Gordon/Von Zitzewitz (Volkswagen) 8m03s
6. Alphand/Picard (Mitsubishi) 8m03s
7. Saby/Perin (Volkswagen) 8m04s
8. Masuoka/Schulz (Mitsubishi) 8m09s
9. Al Attiyah/Geuhennec (BMW) 8m14s
10. Kleinschmidt/Pons (Volkswagen) 8m15s