Sainz wins stage and stretches lead

Al-Attiyah had carved into Volkswagen team-mate Sainz's advantage on stage 11, narrowing the gap from ten to four and a half minutes as the Spaniard struggled with punctures.

But Sainz responded with a vengeance on the San Juan to San Rafael stage. Last year this was the day on which Sainz crashed out while holding a lead of nearly half an hour, but he set the pace from the outset this year.

Al-Attiyah closed in through the final sections of the stage, the last six kilometres of which had to be run in neutralised condition due to the huge volume of spectators at the finish, and was eventually only 52s slower. The gap between the pair therefore stands at 5m20s with just two stages to go.

VW maintains its top three formation with Mark Miller in third, while X-raid BMW driver Stephane Peterhansel is still the best of the rest in fourth.

Peterhansel's team-mate Guerlain Chicherit, who had won yesterday's stage, had a scare when a suspension breakage cost him over an hour and a half, but he remains fifth overall.

Stage 12:

Pos  Driver                Car         Time/Gap
 1.  Carlos Sainz          VW          3h30m29s
 2.  Nasser Al-Attiyah     VW             + 52s
 3.  Mark Miller           VW           + 4m22s
 4.  Stephane Peterhansel  BMW         + 10m49s
 5.  Robby Gordon          Hummer      + 10m56s
 6.  Nicolas Misslin       Mitsubishi  + 17m58s
 7.  Carlos Sousa          Mitsubishi  + 19m13s
 8.  Orlando Terranova     Mitsubishi  + 21m50s
 9.  Giniel de Villiers    VW          + 25m21s
10.  Guilherme Spinelli    Mitsubishi  + 26m57s

Overall:

Pos  Driver                Car           Time/Gap
 1.  Carlos Sainz          VW           42h47m24s
 2.  Nasser Al-Attiyah     VW             + 5m20s
 3.  Mark Miller           VW            + 28m12s
 4.  Stephane Peterhansel  BMW         + 2h20m42s
 5.  Guerlain Chicherit    BMW         + 4h02m50s
 6.  Carlos Sousa          Mitsubishi  + 4h13m25s
 7.  Giniel de Villiers    VW          + 5h04m54s
 8.  Robby Gordon          Hummer      + 5h52m34s
 9.  Guilherme Spinelli    Mitsubishi  + 5h55m22s
10.  Orlando Terranova     Mitsubishi  + 5h55m32s