Leader in the general rankings, Carlos Sainz is – obviously – in the most favorable position when it comes to defending his title on the Dakar. With 4 stage victories out of 6, his track record is exemplary and the level of his riding feats demonstrates the total affinity the driver has with his Race Touareg III. But in Arica, the first week of driving show by Sainz raises as many questions as it answers, first because the battle with his team mate Nasser Al-Attiyah goes on with the same intensity as in 2010. For instance, during the last special stage, both VW drivers finished a tiny 9” apart from each other and the gap between them in the rankings is just 2’42’’. Even if his apparent maturity always identifies him as THE favorite for victory, nothing shows that Sainz – who is constantly pushed to stretching his limits to the max – will be able to control the situation in the remaining 2,550 km of special stages. The Spaniard took the lead at mid-race in the last two editions of the Dakar… and both these raids had completely different endings.

The clear-round to achieve is all the more difficult that behind Al-Attiyah the threat of Stéphane Peterhansel is still pretty real. The three-time winner of the car category proves to be the only driver capable of challenging the Volkswagen, after a stage victory in Iquique. The next day, an avalanche of flat tires on his X3 made him go back in the general rankings and put him in 3rd place. But his 15’25’’ delay is not that big with a view to the performance BWM is now capable of. If the three contenders to final victory seem to have made a difference on their adversaries, there is no certainty they will be present at the finish in Buenos Aires. The fight for the podium or for the Top 5 might actually happen behind them with De Villiers in leadership position of the challengers’ group; he is ranking 4th, 31’ behind Sainz. This is probably where Guerlain Chicherit would have been if his Mini Countryman hadn’t experienced many mechanical problems that pushed him far down the rankings from stage one onwards. He is now 9th, 2h45’ behind the leader. The fall of Robby Gordon was even faster as his trouble ousted his spectacular Hummer out of the race after having had to stop in liaison by a wheel lost in the Andes and missing the closing time of the start gate.

Another group of drivers seem capable of achieving such merits, mainly in the X-Raid team. Even if he is already more than 60’ behind Sainz, the debut of Krzysztof Holowczyc behind the wheel of the X3 is pretty convincing; he is now ranking fifth at rest day. Argentine driver Orlando Terranova, 7th in the standings, seems to be in a good position to confirm his progress on the raid after finishing 9th last year. In the side rankings, the provisional 15th place of Chilean driver Boris Garafulic makes him the best beginner on a Dakar, with a 1h30’ lead on Marlon Koerich. As for the Production category, it has been dominated from stage 1 onwards by title holder Jun Mitsuhashi, the Toyota driver who also has the upper hand on the “alternative energy” category.