The predominantly sandy trail of the 2009 Rallye dos Sertoes from Goiana to Natal exceeded 5,000km in length, making it the calendar's longest cross-country fixture after the Dakar. Indeed, it was to prepare for the 2010 edition of the world-famous marathon that the Volkswagen/BFGoodrich factory squad decided to take part in the Brazilian event.

 

The two VW Race Touaregs were running on BFGoodrich All-Terrain tyres and were by far the dominating force, despite new co-drivers in the German firm's line-up, with Carlos Sainz now navigated by Luca Cruz and Timo Gottschalk sitting alongside Nasser Al-Attiyah. Both crews soon found their marks and went on to monopolise the top of the timesheets on all 10 stages, wit the gap between them rarely exceeding a minute.

 

Carlos Sainz and Luca Cruz survived their trek through the Brazilian forest to celebrate their first victory together. The two Spaniards finished more than a minute clear of Nasser Al-Attiyah. The next outing for the Volkswagen/BFGoodrich will be September's Silk Way Rally.

 

Carlos Sainz: "It was a tough fight against Nasser. It was also a very challenging rally, with some long, hard stages, a highly varied route and constant rhythm changes which called for total concentration. The objective for Luca and me was to work together in a competitive context and it was a case of mission accomplished."

 

1, Sainz/Cruz (VW Race Touareg/BFGoodrich), 29h 16m 40.1s. 2, Al-Attiyah/Gottschalk (VW Race Touareg/BFGoodrich), +1m 9.4s. 3, Azevedo/Haddad (Mitsubishi/BFGoodrich), +3h 53m 2.7s. Etc.