MOTORSPORT: VW heads for Dakar glory

Qatar's Nasser Al-Attiyah has led most of this second week of the Dakar as it has returned to Argentina from Chile and looks to have victory almost wrapped up after another win on the 11th stage overnight.

Defending winner, Spaniard Carlos Sainz, now trails VW teammate Al-Attiyah by almost 1½ hours and is in third place after losing a lot of time on the latest stage with a broken suspension.

Between them is Wednesday's stage winner, South African Giniel De Villiers, the outright Dakar victor in 2009 -- the first year it was held in South America instead of the traditional Europe and Africa.

Al-Attiyah took the overall lead this year after winning the 508km eighth stage from Antofagasta to Copiapo in Chile on Monday.

He finished the 523km stage 11 between Chilecito and San Juan 73 seconds ahead of the BMW X3 of Frenchman Stephane Peterhansel, a nine-time winner of the Dakar -- three times on four wheels and six times on motorcycles.

"I don't know what happened to Carlos. I think he was pushing a lot," Al-Attiyah said. "I did a very good job. I'm quite happy and I will do my best to reach Buenos Aires."

Peterhansel has been troubled by punctures in this year's event and is more than one hour 40 minutes behind Al-Attiyah in fourth place.

Sainz, a dual world rally champion in the early 1990s before turning to rally-raiding in recent years, spent more than an hour repairing a broken front suspension a little over 400km into the latest stage.

The Spaniard had started the day 12 minutes behind Al-Attiyah after losing 10 minutes on Wednesday's stage. He was determined to attack but things only got worse for him.

"I pushed as hard as I could and when I was in Nasser's dust I didn't see a hole. I went straight into it and broke the suspension," Sainz said. "I tried everything I could to go on the attack, because I haven't come here to finish second. For me it's first or nothing, so finishing second or third is the same."

Sainz had already declared Wednesday "an absolutely catastrophic day".

"We got bogged down on a dune after only 5km," he said. "On top of this came a puncture later. We got lost several times, especially at the end of the stage when we didn't find the correct exit from a river bed.  Furthermore we damaged the gearbox."

The penultimate stage tonight, Australian time, is from San Juan to Cordoba, and barring disaster Al-Attiyah, the runner-up last year in a bitter contest with Sainz, will emerge with his maiden victory ahead of Saturday's run to Buenos Aires, which is a virtual parade.

"Carlos's problems will allow Nasser to have a much more comfortable last two days," Peterhansel said. "Carlos already lost the Dakar two days from the finish two years ago.

"We know that it is always complicated to win the Dakar and he's seen just how much this time.

"As for us, there isn't much left to be gained by going out to attack. We're in fourth and third place is too far away. It would be a shame to end up having an accident.

"Even if, for us, fourth position isn't much to write home about, it would be good for the team and the mechanics to get the car back to Buenos Aires in this position."

Following the retirement of Australia's main Dakar hope Bruce Garland last weekend with a spine injury, Geoff Olholm of Cairns and his Victorian navigator Steve Riley have soldiered on in their BMW.

They were 51st on stage 11, second last of the cars, and were last noted in 58th place outright but it's been a gutsy performance nonetheless.

The Dakar has a history of fatalities and there was one during Wednesday's 10th stage.

The Toyota of Argentinean competitors Amor Eduardo Osvaldo and Fenoglio Alejandro hit the car of a member of the public entering the village of Tinogasta.

The 48-year-old man was dead on arrival at hospital.

Red Bull's F1 spending under microscope
The Formula One Teams Association (FOTA) is to investigate whether Red Bull Racing overspent in winning the constructors' and drivers' world championships last year -- even though no other team has publicly protested.

Rival teams have accused Red Bull behind the scenes of breaking the Resource Restriction Agreement (RRA), which limits staff, spending and resources.

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has denied any breach by his team.

"We've worked in accordance with the RRA limits since they were introduced," Horner told BBC Sport. "With tremendous hard work and internal efficiencies, we believe we've absolutely adhered to it.

"Red Bull has committed its budgets wisely and it's obviously surprising that people will feel that way, but it's inevitable, I guess, when you're at the front and winning races."

The agitation appears to be coming from Ferrari, although its team principal Stefano Domenicali said: "I think all the teams that signed have complied."

Of Ferrari in regard to the RRA, Domenicali said: "We respect the rules."

The RRA is a FOTA document rather that part of the rules of the sport's governing body, the Federation Internationale de l'Autmobile (FIA), so teams cannot be stripped of race results.

However, FOTA has a sliding scale of penalties for any breaches.

Any team found to have over-committed can have its allocation for the next season reduced accordingly.

The existing RRA runs until the end of next year but the teams are now negotiating an extension to 2017.

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