Sainz's misfortunes were not over, however. Like Despres in the bike category, the Volkswagen driver made a mistake at the unlucky 100 km point, also choosing the wrong valley. At the finishing line of the special, Sainz already lagged behind his rival Al Attiyah, only 5th today, by 10 minutes. The special was a happy one for the third man in the VW team. After a faultless day, Giniel De Villiers won his first stage victory this year. In the end, he beat Holowczyc by 4'23 and another BMW X3, belonging to Peterhansel, by 5'38. The dunes in Fiambala have thus been cruel to Carlos Sainz. In the general standings, the Spaniard is now 12'37 behind Al Attiyah. On finishing the stage, the man from Madrid admitted that notwithstanding a mistake from his team-mate, he had lost the Dakar.

In the quad race, there was a sprint finish: the first 4 riders to finish the stage all did so within 4 minutes of each other and the gap between the day's winner, Jorge Santamarina, and the runner-up, Sébastian Halpern, was only 8 seconds. The situation is no way near as close in the general standings. Alejandro Patronelli, who contented himself with a solid if not spectacular 6th-placed finish, seems promised to follow in his brother Marcos's footsteps, thanks to a lead of 1 hour and 11 minutes over Halpern and 2 hours 45 minutes over Machacek.

In the truck category, Vladimir Chagin regained command. Dominated yesterday by his Kamaz team-mate Firdaus Kabirov, and second in the general standings, the six times winner of the Dakar grabbed a 5th stage victory since the beginning of the rally and climbed back to the top of the general standings. Chagin leads his main rival by more than 21 minutes. Marchel Van Vliet in his MAN truck threw a spanner in the works of the blue horse brand, taking third place and putting a stop to a series of 100% Kamaz podiums. However, in the general standings, the Russian's domination is complete: Chagin has a lead of 17'27 over Kabirov and 2 hours 44 minutes over Nikoalev.