Sainz gains time on Al-Attiyah

Carlos Sainz has won the ninth stage of the 2011 Dakar Rally and gained terrain to the current leader, Qatari driver Nasser Al-Attiyah.

On the special of 235km around Copiapo, in Chile, the Spaniard closed the gap on his Volkswagen team-mate by 1m56s. Nevertheless, the Qatari is still in the lead with an advantage of 3m18s.

At the end of the leg Sainz was a satisfied man especially because he admits that dunes, desert and off-track terrain aren't his favourites.

"We drove a good special. After 100km we caught up with then overtook Nasser. He had a puncture, but afterwards he clawed back a bit of time on us. Tomorrow it will be me opening the way and the roles will be reversed,"said the Spaniard.

Giniel de Villiers, Stephane Peterhansel and Mark Miller were third, fourth and fifth respectively, keeping the same spots in the overall standings.

In the bikes for once in this year's Dakar the KTMs didn't dominate. In the ninth stage it was the time for American Jonah Street to win a stage, his second of the career in the Dakar. The Yamaha biker was the quickest ahead of BMW's Frans Verhoeven and Sherco's David Casteu.

In the overall standings Despres recovered some of the time disadvantage to his KTM team-mate Marc Coma. The Spaniard is still in the command of the 2011 Dakar with a lead of more than eight minutes over Despres.