SAN MIGUEL DE TUCUMAN, Argentina: Defending champion Carlos Sainz stretched his lead in the Dakar Rally, winning Monday's second stage to push him further ahead of BMW's Stephane Peterhansel and Volkswagen teammate Nasser Al-Attiyah. Sainz, who won the first stage in cars, covered the second leg in northern Argentina in 3 hours, 11 minutes, 38 seconds. Al-Attiyah was 1:03 behind with Peterhansel 1:34 back. In the overall standings, Sainz is 3:05 up on Peterhansel and has a 3:19 edge on Al-Attiyah. In bikes, defending champion Cyril Despres on a KTM won the second stage in 3:19:11. Marc Coma, also on a KTM, was 1:49 behind and David Casteu was 3:46 back. In the overall, Despres is 2:35 in front of Coma and has a 6:13 edge on Ruben Faria. Faria was the initial winner of the first stage, but was bumped into second by a one-minute penalty for speeding. Despres picked up the victory. Sainz had problems with his windshield wiper Sunday, and it happened again Monday. “For a dozen kilometers I couldn't see a thing and I had to drive very slowly,” Sainz said. “I'm very disappointed. I've probably lost a lot of time. I don't understand why we still have this problem because the mechanics checked everything yesterday.”
