Volkswagens third & fourth in the desert
Nov-08 2006 / 12:58 EST | posted by Rafal

After leading on the opening day of the UAE Desert Challenge, Carlos Sainz’s luck ran out in the dunes today (Tuesday). The Spaniard’s Volkswagen Race Touareg 2 duelled with the Mitsubishi of Luc Alphand for the stage win before Sainz was delayed by drive system problems.

Carlos and his French co-driver Michel Périn were able to fix the fault but lost more than three hours. ‘We had a partial failure of the drive system,’ said Sainz. ‘In the deep sand it was impossible to continue with only two-wheel drive, so we had to repair the defect with on-board tools and it was very difficult. Although we have lost more than three hours we will continue the rally because we want to set good times over the next few days and, above all, gather more experience in the sand.’

Portuguese Volkswagen driver Carlos Sousa meanwhile enjoyed a near perfect day to move into third place, just over 15 minutes behind new leader Alphand. The Race Touareg 2 of Ari Vatanen is fourth, a further six minutes behind; the Finn lost 11 minutes while stuck in soft sand.

Volkswagen Motorsport Director Kris Nissen said: ‘It was too bad that Carlos Sainz lost a lot of time; up to that point he had been one of the quickest contenders. Initial analysis suggests that it was a minor defect which should not give us too much cause for concern.’

Tomorrow’s stage around Moreeb features 263 km of competitive driving, much of it over sand dunes.

Provisional standings after leg 2
1, Luc Alphand / Gilles Picard (FRA), Mitsubishi, 6h 41m 59s
2, Jean-Louis Schlesser / Emmanuel Guigou (FRA), Schlesser-Ford, +14m 25s
3, Carlos Sousa (POR) / Andreas Schultz (GER), Volkswagen, +15m 14s
4, Ari Vatanen (FIN) / Fabrizia Pons (ITA), Volkswagen, +21m 26s
5, Stéphane Peterhansel / Jean-Paul Cottret (FRA), Mitsubishi, +26m 41s