At the start in Fiambala, Marc Coma, comfortable leader in the general standings with more than 90' lead, had enough margin for maneuver. The Catalan therefore raced wisely. Not taking any inconsiderate risk either to come back on one of his adversaries, Cyril Despres who had started 2' before kept a sufficiently high pace not to be overtaken by his lieutenant David Frétigné who was right behind him. In a nutshell, this race was the right race for a probable future Dakar winner. And in the sand of the Catamarca Province, the most inspired was - again - Cyril Despres. His tyre problems from the early stage, which might turn out to have been fatal for him when it comes to final victory, seem very far away now that he is back in Argentina. The KTM rider had no concern for the others; he took the lead of the stage right after the first CP (km 62) and kept it till the finishing line. A lone race that allows the Frenchman to get his 4th stage victory in this rally, i.e. a third of all stages of the raid. In total, his Dakar stage victory counter is not at 20 special stages won in all his participations. Despres finally wins over Marc Coma by 1’23" and Farres Guell by 9’47". Moreover, the title holder benefited from oil problems for David Frétigné who lost more than 10 minutes on today's stage and David now ranks second in the general standings. Marc Coma now has a 1h29' lead over Despres and a 1h33' lead over Frétigné.