Stephane Peterhansel took over the lead of the Dakar Rally following the second stage Monday, while Nasser Al-Attiyah went fastest to climb from 38th to sixth overall. Peterhansel, who has nine Dakar wins to his name on four and two wheels, began the stage third in the standings behind his X-raid Mini teammates Leonid Novitskiy and Krzysztof Holowczyc. But he completed the 180-mile timed section of the 483-mile stage from Santa Rosa de la Plata to San Rafael in 2h48m12s, and this was easily enough to turn a 9s deficit into an overall lead of 2m28s. It appeared that this would be enough to give him a stage win, but he had not bargained on Al-Attiyah, who lost 9m50s to engine problems on stage one, completing the day's running 54s faster than anbody else. Al-Attiyah's drive brought his Robby Gordon-run Hummer to within 8m47s of Peterhansel's lead, although with four drivers between himself and the Frenchman. Al-Attiyah's team boss Robby Gordon was third fastest on the stage, 2m42s slower than the Qatari, and moved into second place overall as a result, 2m28s behind Peterhansel. Holowczyc dropped to third in his Mini, 5s behind Gordon, with Toyota driver de Villiers fourth, a further 1m16s back. Nani Roma (Mini) climbed to fifth with Guilherme Spinelli (Mitsubishi) a spot behind Al-Attiyah in seventh. Overnight leader Novitskiy dropped over 11 minutes to Peterhansel, causing the Russian to drop back to eighth spot. Christian Lavieille, seventh overnight, broke down 40 miles into the stage, the Dessoude driver losing more than 45 minutes as he attempted repairs that would keep him in the rally. Coma extends lead Defending motorcycling champion Marc Coma won his 17th career stage in the race here Monday. The Spaniard moved to the top of the standings after winning the 295km second stage which also saw him extend his lead over KTM teammate and main rival Cyril Despres. Despres finished second in the stage but was 1min 18sec in arrears of Coma. First stage winner Francisco “Chaleco” Lopez of Chile was ahead at the first time marker but faded to finish fourth over two minutes behind Coma. Coma said that he had enjoyed the initial tussle with Lopez. “Chaleco and me were riding at top speed and let me tell you, the Aprilia is very, very quick,” said Coma. Despres nevertheless experienced a better day than he had Sunday — when he finished 13th — and the three-time champion is nearly three minutes adrift of Coma. “The first special was a good warm-up and this second special has done my confidence good... It was a good day overall,” said the Frenchman.
