Sainz fastest, Al-Attiyah close to win

While Sainz beat fellow VW man Giniel de Villiers to the fastest time on today's 555-kilometre San Juan to Cordoba stage by 2m43s, a cautious Al-Attiyah was six minutes off the pace in third. But that still gives him a massive 48-minute advantage over second-placed de Villiers with victory now in sight.

"It's a very difficult feeling, you know because you need a lot of concentration from the start until the finish," said Al-Attiyah.

"You don't want to make any mistakes. It really was the hardest stage of my life, because I had to keep concentrated and not make any mistakes.

"Sometimes I was going fast, sometimes slow because I needed to keep my concentration and keep the same pace, but it was okay."

Sainz is still third overall, although he now shares the record tally of 23 stage wins with Stephane Peterhansel - who had another troubled stage today.

The X-Raid BMW driver had been quickest through the opening sections, before yet more punctures plus overheating issues left him only fourth-fastest, 6m55s down on Sainz.

"Today was like the rest of the rally. There's always something that isn't working," said Peterhansel.

"When it's not the rocks, it's the thorns like what happened twice today. As a result, we put a hole in the radiator and we lost water. We had a puncture too.

"What with all the punctures and repairs, we had to stop four times, which must total around 10 minutes lost. Every day there is something that goes wrong.

"This morning, we set off to attack, we really wanted to battle it out, not go out for a jaunt. But it never rains, it only pours..."

The competitors now just have to complete tomorrow's relatively short 181km route from Cordoba back to Buenos Aires to bring the rally to a close.

Stage 12 results:

Pos  Driver                   Car         Time/Gap
 1.  Carlos Sainz             Volkswagen  5h37m18s
 2.  Giniel de Villiers       Volkswagen   + 2m43s
 3.  Nasser Al-Attiyah        Volkswagen   + 6m11s
 4.  Stephane Peterhansel     BMW          + 6m55s
 5.  Krzysztof Holowczyc      BMW         + 13m51s
 6.  Mark Miller              Volkswagen  + 16m51s
 7.  Guilherme Spinelli       Mitsubishi  + 25m36s
 8.  Ricardo Leal dos Santos  BMW         + 30m10s
 9.  Alfie Cox                Nissan      + 47m37s
10.  Matthias Kahle           SMG         + 48m37s

Overall classification:

Pos  Driver                   Car            Time/Gap
 1.  Nasser Al-Attiyah        Volkswagen    19h59m30s
 2.  Giniel de Villiers       Volkswagen     + 48m21s
 3.  Carlos Sainz             Volkswagen   + 1h21m16s
 4.  Stephane Peterhansel     BMW          + 1h41m29s
 5.  Krzysztof Holowczyc      BMW          + 4h10m34s
 6.  Mark Miller              Volkswagen   + 4h53m18s
 7.  Ricardo Leal dos Santos  BMW          + 6h39m37s
 8.  Christian Lavieille      Nissan       + 7h48m57s
 9.  Guilherme Spinelli       Mitsubishi   + 8h20m17s
10.  Matthias Kahle           SMG         + 15h00m40s