Nancy Knapp Schilke - Motorsport.com

World Rally Championship legend Carlos Sainz tackled the second stage today in this year's Dakar cross-country rally. The final European stage had been described as a WRC-style special covering 67km -- a short special by Dakar standards but meeting their goal of offering the competitors a challenge.

There were many types of tracks today and so many levels of grip. At places, the wheels were spinning a lot and the road was narrow," commented Sainz. "It was a nice stage but not an easy one!"

After a 15km liaison route out of Portimao, the car and bike racers headed to the mountains crossing ravines and taking it slow to not make an error so they would make it to the Malaga, Spain and the docks for the overnight ride to the African continent where the challenges will increase on the route to their final destination in Senegal: Dakar.

The final day in Portugal was not billed as easy, like the first special of the 29th Edition of Dakar, the competitors had to be on guard. Due to the mountain trek, the Truck class were excluded but they still had to traverse the liaison route.

The former WRC champion and navigator Michel Perin controlled their Volkswagen Race Touareg 2 with a time of 59 minutes and 26 seconds. With Carlos Souza's win yesterday in Portugal, the Spaniard did not take over the Car lead from the Portuguese racer. Souza holds the edge for Monday's first special in Morocco by 45 seconds.

"Generally speaking, I enjoyed the Portuguese stages more than last year and we are happy with our results," Sainz said. "As a conclusion, the car is competitive and we managed these two days in Portugal quite well."

Mitsubishi's Nani Roma and last year's winner Luc Alphand for the Mitsubishi team both tied for second in their Pajero MPR13s, clocking a time of 59:55, 29 seconds off of Sainz' pace.

It sounds like a cliche, but one can loose the race in this type of special. It was a very technical race, very Portuguese, as last year. The type of terrain changed many times, it can be dangerous," said Roma. "Let me tell that this year the Dakar has shot off at top speed and I really have the feeling the pace veil remain very high. We already had a great time driving on these stages. Even Morocco can make the difference this year, because the other teams are extremely well prepared."

Yesterday, the Volkswagen drivers had the top five positions and today, Mitsubishi held four of the top five. Stephane Peterhansel was 31 seconds adrift of Sainz and Hiroshi Masuoka was 1:24 from the leader's time.

"I was a bit disappointed yesterday," admitted Alphand. "But it is never a piece of cake when you start first on this kind of special. Today the objective was to catch the train and avoid ending up too far away from the leaders even if the race is still long. We did quite a good race. We drove well. And concerning the car, everything is fine. This is a new car, so we need to learn to trust it and to know it."

In the overall standings behind Souza and Sainz is Ginel De Villiers (Volkswagen) over two minutes out of the top spot followed by Roma and Peterhansel, both over three minutes behind Souza.

"Today was a stage for the sprinters. Everyone attacked. And in such conditions, when you are the first car to start it isn't the best position to set a good time," remarked Souza. "But I'm happy, because I didn't lose too much on the others. There were a lot of people and the surface was very slippery. But it went well and the car is behaving nicely."

The expected show of power behind the two dominate teams, Mitsubishi and Volkswagen, will continue as they take on the expected high-level of difficulty Africa.

The two Portuguese Yamaha riders again pulled the double whammy. This time if was Helder Rodrigues taking the win on his 450WRF with a time of two minutes and 44 seconds. Yesterday, the Bianchiprata Compet Vod rider garnered second; today's win placed in at the top of the overall Bike standings.

"It was a magnificent special stage today, I didn't have the slightest problem," Rodrigues said." I was aiming to hit hard straight away in the first special stage, but I missed out on victory by 16 seconds. In the end, I'm just as happy to win today's special. Now, roll on Africa: I'll see what I'm capable of there on a day to day basis."

Algarve SPEDakar Team's Ruben Faria took the top honors yesterday and today added to the local pride by finishing second on his Yamaha 450WRF, just one minute off the pace despite a fall.

"I had a fall during today's special stage and even hurt my knee. So, it wasn't as good as yesterday. I just hope the injury isn't too bad," explained Faria. "I'm not totally reassured, so I'm going to go to hospital to have a few examinations and see just what's up. Even so, I thought it was a great stage again."

Second yesterday and third today was Gauloises Racing's Isidre Esteve Pujol, adrift by nearly two minutes on his KTM 690. Repeating his top five performance on his Gauloises KTM was David Casteu followed by Team Repsol's Marc Coma on his KTM 650.

Yamaha and KTM riders hold the top five in the overall standings with Rodrigues followed by Faria, Pujol, Casteu and KTM rider Fabien Planet.

"This last Portuguese stage went okay. It was even very good, since I've finished 3 seconds behind Marc Coma. I'm happy with this beginning to my first Dakar. It's positive especially since I'm on my own with my mechanic and its sometimes a little hectic. I can't wait to get stuck into the Moroccan stages now and get a taste of Africa," commented Planet.

Defending title holder Coma has made up ground after yesterday when he admitted that "the reverse order made it more difficult" and "preferred to be careful and take it easy". Today, his top five placement today, Coma has moved to eighth in the standings.

"It was very slippery, like riding on ice," explained Coma. "I can imagine the power was a disadvantage today, but after a few kilometers I was understood how to use the power of the bike in a way that was helpful."

Even though the Truck class did not run a special today, all was not well for one team. The Americano-Mexican with off-road ace Darren Skilton driving with Jose Grijalva and Hector Camacho sustained an engine failure in their Mercedes 1844.

Other retirements included two who did not take today's start: Simon Droux and Franck Weissner in the Bike category. Droux had two major incidents on the stage one special: clutch and expansion tank on his Yamaha while Weissner suffered an engine failure on his KTM on the final liaison yesterday.

In the Car class, Jean-Louis Juchault and Xavier Rolet also did not make today's start due to losing their Toyota engine on the final liaison yesterday.

Today was not a good one for Finnish driver Ari Vatanen who first had his Volkswagen stuck in the river just shy of the finish line. He did make it to the finish but lost over an hour to the leaders.

Ronn Bailey had a more dramatic incident than Vatanen. Driving his Ronn Bailey Motorsports' new Chevy LS7 buggy on the final liaison after the special, Bailey had a multi rollover. He and co-pilot Kevin Heath were not seriously injured and the American team is enroute to the docks after making repairs to their buggy.

"We were driving along the freeway behind our assistance vehicle and taking care not to go over the speed limit when we were forced to swerve to avoid a Portuguese car," explained Bailey. "In the processes we hit the central reservation and rolled the car five times. The bodywork was completely destroyed but incredibly we landed on our wheels and were able to drive off to safety. Fortunately we had our race harnesses on and so escaped serious injury -- if we had hit the other car the driver would have died for sure. All this happened in front of a service station with hundreds of spectators so we had plenty of witnesses!"

If they make the final ferry crossing, the car will have to go through a tech inspection for safety reasons before they can compete tomorrow. Yet, Bailey is optimistic in his third Dakar and his first with the team's newly designed and built buggy.

"There was a lot of work to do on the car to get going again but our assistance crew did an incredible job. At the moment we are heading towards the ferry and should just make the last ferry," Bailey added. "If we do it is in large part thanks to the Portuguese police who provided us with an escort so that we lost as little time as possible. I can't thank them enough. I tell you there's never a dull moment on the Dakar."

On Monday, the journey will take the competition from Nador to Er Rachidia on a 648km trek, the third special stage of this year's Dakar will consist of 252km in Morocco on a day that will see navigators using all of their skills along the maze tracks and across rocky trails on the first stage in Africa.

"The first stage in Morocco will be one for the best navigators. I trust in my own skills," commented last year's Bike winner Coma. "It will be a combination of navigation, paying attention and try to keep the pace as high as possible."

Dakar: Stage two Portimao to Malaga report

Stage 2 - Sunday 7 January 2007 - Portimao to Málaga
Connection 15 km - Special 67 km - Connection 463 km
Total 545 km

The film of the stage

Rodriguez hits back!

After the car-bike double the day before, Portugal was once again celebrating after its second and last special stage this year. On a route snaking through the hills of the Algarve where earth replaced sand, Helder Rodrigues recorded his first victory on the Dakar, taking revenge on countryman Ruben Faria, who beat him into second place yesterday.

He had been aiming for victory on the first stage of the Dakar, but had to wait 24 hours to fulfil his goal. Portugal's Helder Rodrigues, who twice came 3rd last year, finishing in the top 10, made the most of the splendid Algarve tracks to record the time to be beaten on two wheels. On a very slippery surface, the Yamaha rider has confirmed his status as the leader for the Japanese constructor that he carved out in 2006. This success is all the more resounding, given that the last stage victories for the rising sun constructor, excluding the David Frétigné's seven victories during the last three years, date back to the Stéphane Peterhansel era. By 47 seconds, Rodrigues leadshis countryman Ruben Faria, a specialist on the Lusitanian tracks, but who was unable to avoid a fall which put paid to his hopes of a brace of victories. Yesterday's hero has been obliged to go to hospital to have checks on his injured knee.

Third after the 67-km special stage, Isidre Esteve is the best official KTM rider of the day, beating his team-mate David Casteu. For his first Dakar, Fabien Planet, French endurance champion, managed a promising 5th place on a route which, it's true, was perfectly suited to his skills. Similarly, Thierry Bethys, new to the rally last year, but with an impressive roll of honour of victories on the Touquet endurance event, finished his special stage just behind Planet. Cyril Despres had his first scare of the year. The winner in 2005 suffered a slight fall trying to avoid a spectator. He lost 13 seconds on the day's winner.

Carlos Sousa opened proceedings with the same ambitions as his countrymen who won on the bikes. However, the favourites seem to have called an end to playing cat and mouse. Spaniard Carlos Sainz, the winner who took all in 2006 in Portugal, did not pull his punches in Portimao. Always in control, the former WRC champion gobbled up the narrow and slippery tracks tackled today. His colleagues in the Volkswagen team, who accomplished a great feat yesterday, had less impact in the south than in the north of the country. Especially Ari Vatanen who, after finishing within the same second as his former WRC rival yesterday, was left way back in the general rankings. After getting stuck in the middle of a ford with a flooded engine, his Race Touareg number 308 can already wave goodbye to any chance of overall victory.

As regards Mitsubishi, they are gradually getting up to speed. Luc Alphand, who lost several minutes due to a puncture yesterday, calmly climbed back up the rankings today. With the third best time today, 29'' behind Sainz, just like Roma, the title-holder is now 9'27''behind Sousa, who is still provisional rally leader. Before setting off for Africa, Guerlain Chicherit again showed himself to be the best placed to settle the Mitsu-VW duel: he arrived in 6th place in the general rankings, 4'49'' behind Sousa.

-credit: dakar.com