Time to get up to speed on the Dakar. Bikes first. After winning three of the four stages so far, Marc Coma has an astonishing 43 minute lead over American Jonah Street, with the more familiar Davide Fretigne just behind. 2007 winner Cyril Despres is recovering from repeated tyre problems, and now lies 11th overall, 1 hour 37 minutes down, having finished 2nd on stage four.

So it’s looking like Coma’s Dakar unless something goes badly wrong – which is always a distinct possibility in the Dakar.

In the cars, with two stage wins apiece, Carlos Sainz‘s Volkswagen has a 4 minute lead over the BMW of Nasser Saleh Al Attiyah. Giniel de Villiers, in the second Volkswagen sits 3rd, ahead of the Mitsubishis of multiple Dakar winner Stephane Peterhansel, and Nani Roma.

With stage finishes of 6th, 2nd, 5th and 8th so far, it’s might be a struggle for Peterhansel to mount a challenge. Hopefully it’ll be a fight between Sainz and Al Attiyah all the way.

We should check up on some of the others. Robbie Gordon is doing very nicely in his Hummer, sitting 9th overall. Yvan Muller in his solo Buggy is 70th, just ahead of the Coronel brothers in 67th. Ukyo Katayama is 81st.

Eliseo Salazar looks like the highest placed McRae Enduro in 38th – though looking at the individual stage finishes (167th, missing, missing, 96th) that makes no sense. He’s also down as having a 4 hour 15 minute penalty. So Christ knows what’s going on there. Chris Leyds and Alister McRae are down in 100th, though it turns out they are acting as sweeper for their customers in the other three cars.