Leader Carlos Sainz crashed out of the Dakar Rally when the Spaniard careered off the track during the 12th stage on Thursday. South Africa's Giniel de Villiers, who began the day in third place, took advantage by winning the stage to become the new overall leader. Race organizers confirmed on the official website that Sainz and his co-driver Michel Perin had abandoned the race and been flown by helicopter back to the starting point at Fiambala. Sainz, leading by a comfortable 27 minutes at the start, escaped unhurt but Perin suffered a broken shoulder in the incident which happened after 79km of the 253km timed section of the stage from Fiambala to La Rioja. De Villiers won the stage by 16 minutes from American Mark Miller and was 25 minutes ahead of Robby Gordon. De Villiers has a 2min 35sec lead over Miller in the overall standings with Gordon one hour and 18 minutes behind in third place. Cyril Despres of France led throughout Thursday to win his third stage in the motorbike race. He finished in 3:57:37, about 1:30 ahead of overall leader Marc Coma of Spain and 9:47 in front of Gerard Farres Guell of Spain, who surged from 20th place. Coma leads in the overall standings by 1:29:48 over the second-placed Despres, but said it wasn't easy to maintain the lead on Thursday.
