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Millions lining the route, billions worldwide in front of television screens - the longest marathon that motorsport has on offer, mesmerizes everybody with its fascinating and dramatic pictures: The Dakar Rally.

In 2010 the mother of all desert rallies starts for the second time on the South American continent. Also competing: Five Race Touaregs with TDI diesel power prepared and fielded by the Volkswagen factory team. They face up to the challenge with the goal of defending the title, because whoever triumphs here is ‘talk of the town’.

“The media interest during the Dakar Rally is unique. The fascinating pictures are broadcast on television in approximately 190 countries,” says Volkswagen Motorsport Director Kris Nissen. “Compared with other leading motorsport categories the ‘Dakar’ provides an outstanding platform. This event is seen worldwide by billions of people. Whoever demonstrates technical expertise within this environment can be sure of huge publicity. This is also a reason for our involvement in the ‘Dakar’.” The Dakar Rally achieved a substantial range on its premiere in South America in 2009. The number of TV features amounted to 1,130 in the 189 countries where television reports about the desert classic were shown. On the South American continent alone, where only five countries were evaluated, there were almost 300 million viewers. However, in the other nations around the world - from China to Canada, from New Zealand to Russia, from South Africa to Denmark - the “Dakar” is a hip subject immediately after the New Year, and not only in the sports programmes. In 2009, 2.2 billion television viewers worldwide followed the television reports - tendency increasing.

>>>>>Read more on the Dakar in our RolfsRacing.com Dakar Page.

Huge success in 2009 in the audience opinion, the 17th edition of Sertões International Rally officially ended this Saturday (July 4th) with a press conference in Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, and was also a unanimity among pilots and teams. All of them highlighted different degrees of difficulty, the variety of terrains along the 5,056 kilometers, and the degree of detail of the road books, besides the organization of the whole race.

“This was a very hard race, but is also one of the best in the world”, said Spanish driver Carlos Sainz, world off-road legend, who débuted in Brazil racing - and winning, in cars category - Sertões 2009. “Congratulations to the organization and the audience, that has always been caring and nice to us. But, before anything else, I would like to thank the Volkswagen. It may look easy, because we were always first or second, but it was not. We only achieved this prize as a result of serious and professional work”. Two times world champion in speed rally in the 90s, a time when there were many talented drivers, Sainz declared that he would like to race Sertões again. “If the team wishes to, I’ll vote yes”, he said.
>>>>>Read full story in our RolfsRacing.com News Page.

Wolfsburg (8 January 2009). Following a turbulent sixth leg, Volkswagen now leads the Dakar Rally with three of its Race Touareg cars. In the overall rankings, Giniel de Villiers/Dirk von Zitzewitz (ZA/D) are 7.39 minutes ahead of Carlos Sainz/Michel Perin (E/F) and 17.51 minutes ahead of Mark Miller/Ralph Pitchford (USA/ZA). Volkswagen has already led this year’s Dakar Rally, from the second to the fourth leg.

All three Volkswagen drivers have now moved up one place overall after a day which kicked off with an extremely tough and selective 60-kilometre stretch of dunes and concluded with some easier dirt tracks. This is because the leading team of Nasser Al-Attiyah/Tina Thorner (Q/S) in a BMW X3 incurred some technical problems on the way from San Rafael to Mendoza in Argentina and took a short cut, missing several of the waypoints and consequently being excluded. This allowed Volkswagen to achieve a threefold leg victory, with Giniel de Villiers coming in ahead of Mark Miller and Carlos Sainz - yet another superb driving and navigating performance.

The German Volkswagen duo Dieter Depping/Timo Gottschalk (D/D), who came second yesterday, were less lucky. After incurring a technical fault, they were forced to stop and were towed to the bivouac by a Volkswagen race truck. Depping/Gottschalk are now ranked eleventh overall.

This turn of events means that Volkswagen now has a comfortable lead in the first half of the rally, with the three teams’ closest challengers, Nani Roma/Lucas Cruz (E/E) in a Mitsubishi, trailing behind the front-runners by 31.18 minutes.

#305 - Giniel de Villiers (ZA), 1st place leg / 1st place overall “An unbelievably tough leg today. The first third was all about overcoming very high dunes, some of them with very soft sand. The TDI power in our Race Touareg really helped us keep going where others got into difficulties. And we are more than happy with today’s result.”

Read more in our HeartVigor.com DAKAR News Page.

Day 3

Wolfsburg (5 January 2009). Volkswagen continues to hold its ground after the third leg of the Dakar Rally, with Carlos Sainz/Michel Périn (E/F) remaining at the top of the leader board. With some controlled driving, the Spanish-French duo was able to increase the lead it established yesterday in its Race Touareg by more than a minute to 3.40 minutes on the 694-kilometre leg westwards from Puerto Madryn to Jacobacci in Argentina. The second fastest time behind the day’s winners Nasser Al-Attiyah/Tina Thörner (Q/S) in a BMW X-raid was enough for Sainz to maintain his lead. The third leg presented the participants with speedy stretches and with winding - and therefore also demanding - sections. With some rocky ground to cover, they had to reduce the risk of tyre blowouts in order not to forfeit valuable time.

The third best time of the leg was likewise secured by Volkswagen, with Dieter Depping/Timo Gottschalk (D/D) coming in 1.05 minutes behind their teammates. Giniel de Villiers/Dirk von Zitzewitz (ZA/D) achieved fourth position in another Race Touareg on the second longest special stage of the rally, measuring 551 kilometres. The pair fell one place in the overall rankings, to third place. Mark Miller/Ralph Pitchford (USA/ZA) were ranked sixth in leg 3, meaning that all four Race Touareg were in the top six. Overall, Miller/Pitchford have now moved up one position, to sixth place.

Read more in our RolfsRacing.com DAKAR Page.