Stephane Peterhansel continued his dominance of the Dakar Rally by winning the 12th stage in Egypt.

The Frenchman completed the 341-kilometre stage around Siwa in three hours four minutes 17 seconds to increase his advantage at the top of the overall leaderboard to 24 minutes from Mitsubishi team-mate Hiroshi Masuoka.

The Japanese finished second today, over seven minutes slower than Peterhansel, while Jean-Pierre Fontenay moved into third place to give Mitsubishi a clean sweep of the podium places.

Peterhansel said: "This morning we took off with a rebuilt car. We thought that the special wouldn't be easy and that maybe time had come to attack to try and gain some time.

"Our pace was, from start to finish, very fast. We hit the car on dune jumps but it paid off because we won seven minutes on Masuoka. Our position is now a lot more comfortable."

Ex-Formula One driver Ukyo Katayama's rally ended early when the Japanese crashed his Toyota heavily just over 100km into the stage. The former Tyrrell driver emerged unscathed.

Giovani Sala won the bike class today by just eight seconds from Pal Anders Ullevalseter.

But Richard Sainct's 11th place was enough to keep him in the overall lead, although Cyril Despres made up two minutes to lie 10 minutes 48 seconds adrift in second place.

Fabrizio Meoni is third overall, half an hour behind Frenchman Sainct.

Sala said: "Today I rode well with no problems in the dunes. In the last kilometres, I attacked full speed. I don't know how I won today because I don't feel well at all, I had a fever. I'm very happy with my Dakar so far."

Vladimir Tchaguine won the truck category today to extend his lead overall to one hour six minutes 52 seconds from Tomas Tomacek. Early leader Johannes de Rooy is third - over two and a half hours adrift - after setting the second quickest time today.

His son Gerardus crashed out of the event after 152km, seriously damaging his DAF while jumping over a sand dune.

Tomorrow the competitors tackle a 569km stage from Siwa to Dakhla in Morocco.

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