Driving Through Dakar´s Halfway Point

The Dakar is more than halfway, It is in its 9th. stage between Copiapo and La Serena in Chile. This is the route for today:

The Volkswagen team with its Race Touareg 2 model is dominating the event by grabbing the first 3 positions with Carlos Sainz being the leader. Their main rival Stephane Peterhansel driving a BMW X3 CC model is behind them on 4th. place but 02:02:25 hours away from Sainz. Peterhansel had transmission problems in stage 5, He had to drive half of that stage in only 2WD or 4x2 mode (imagine that in the Atacama desert). He managed to finish in the 33th. position in that stage. The following is a video from that difficult stage 5.

It looks that the fight for the first place in this Dakar will be between the drivers from the Volkswagen team. Enjoy the race!