During the 10th stage, the second day through the Atacama desert, the MAN Rally Team came in 6th at +00:36:20 behind Chagin, who was today’s winner. Chagin crossed the finish 1.44' ahead of Gerard de Rooy and thus maintains his top position in the general list of rankings.
Today’s results:
1. CHAGIN (RUS)  05:14:40
2. DE ROOY(NLD) +00:01:43
3. KABIROV(RUS) +00:13:56
4. MARDEEV(RUS) +00:32:10
5. LOPRAIS(CZE) +00:32:37
6. ECHTER (DEU) +00:36:20
The 10th stage around Copiapo was said to be the longest and toughest stage of the 2009 Dakar rally. It turned out not to be the longest, because the organisation decided to shorten the route by 200 km because the riverbeds were so difficult to negotiate. The toughest it probable was. Like in the 9th stage, the participants had to conquer incredibly high sand dunes across a stretch of more than 100 kilometres. This is where we really got to see a MAN of character.
 
The general list of rankings after today reads:
1. KABIROV (RUS) 40:01:23
2 501 CHAGIN (RUS)  +00:00:14 
3 505 DE ROOY (NLD) +00:32:32 
4 508 MARDEEV (RUS) +04:31:34 
5 507 ECHTER (DEU)  +05:36:39