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-Thanks for joining me; make sure you stick around for all the latest news from the Dakar.
22.15The first three trucks are over the finish line, with Russian driver Vladimir Chagin winning his fourth stage of the event, one minute 44 seconds ahead of Dutch driver Gerard De Rooy.
19.54The first three cars have finished; Sainz has won the special stage ahead of Gordon and Miller.
19.40The first seven bikes have finished, with Spain's Jordi Viladoms the winner, his first stage of the year and his second career Dakar stage. He wins from Duclos, who finishes, 1 minute, six seconds back.
18:37Viladoms takes advantage of the misfortune of the front pair to lead stage 10 at CP5. He is only 30 seconds ahead of Franco-Malian Alain Duclos, with Casteu two minutes off the pace. Despres is 12 minutes behind the leader after getting lost, while Coma is three mins behind him.
18:20Russian Vladimir Chagin is the quickest truck after 87km, a minute ahead of Kamaz team-mate Firdaus Kabirov, with Dutch driver Gerard De Rooy of Ginaf six minutes behind.
18:03Gordon leads the stage at CP4 (279km). He is a minute and a half ahead of Sainz while De Villiers is third.
17:51Despres - and the following Coma - make the same mistake in navigation after 480km and only rejoin after making a 23km loop! Despres is now fifth, while Coma has fallen 15km behind him.
17:25At CP3 after 195km, Sainz has the lead by a paltry four seconds from Gordon. De Villiers is (#plus;1.47) third.
17:09TERRANOVA ROLLS HIS BMW!!! Just two kilometres after the last checkpoint, the stage leader put it on its roof - and he is out of the race!! Everyone is safe and unhurt and being transported to the base camp.
17:00The truck stage is underway.
16:38Terranova still leads after 178km: he is only 23 seconds ahead of De Villiers and 29 ahead of Sainz. Gordon and Miller follow.
16:27After 279km (CP4) of the timed special, Despres extends his lead over Coma to 2.05, with Lopez (#plus;4.10) taking third place back from Viladoms.
15:47BMW's Orlando Terranova leads at CP1 after 87km by 46 seconds from Hummer man Robby Gordon followed by Volkswagen drivers Sainz, Giniel de Villiers and Miller.
15:28After 195km takes them to CP3, Frenchman Despres on his KTM is 1.42 ahead of Coma, also on a KTM. Jordi Viladoms, a third KTM rider, is now third, four minutes off the pace. He was seven minutes behind Lopez in the overall standings at the last mark and is closing on him again...
14:57After an initial sandy section, it has been mostly gravel and stones so far for the bikes; now there is a sandy gravel section until they cut across at CP3.
14:57Despres has increased his lead on Coma to one and a half minutes at CP2, 178km in. Lopez is four minutes off the pace, Casteu six. Fretigne, second overall, has lost seven minutes so far to leader Coma - he is currently an hour and 11 minutes behind him in the general standings.
14:50Volkswagen team-mates Sainz and Miller lead off the cars race, two minutes apart as usual.
14:27The trucks, like the cars yet to get underway, will contest today's stage only to CP5 due to the late start and the upcoming monster stages, as well as the difficult sand dunes - with those 32km in particularly nasty.
13:54Lopez has an hour and a half to make up on Coma if he is to win the 2009 edition of this famous race; Lopez and Casteu over two hours.
13:35Cyril Despres leads at the 87km mark by a single second from Coma. Francisco Lopez and David Casteu follow, just over two minutes behind.
12:55After a two-hour-and-40-minute delay, the Dutch KTM rider begins followed by Fretigne of France. We have action, ladies and gentlemen, we have action.
12:51The choppers have now been given clearance to take off and so Verhoeven is all set to lead off at the beginning of this delayed 10th stage.
12:39When they finally get the green light, there will be 128 bikes and 109 cars competing, plus 61 trucks.
12:19The persistent nature of the fog means that the riders are still to start - the helicopters carrying race organisers and medics have not been cleared for take-off, meaning the race cannot start for safety reasons.
11:25There is a 20km liaison before the beginning of the special today, but none at the end. Almost all of the competitors' energies are reserved for the timed section.
11:18We are still waiting to hear whether it is safe for the riders to go... news as soon as we get it.
11:01Marc Coma is over an hour ahead of David Fretigne in the bikes competition.
10:59After Mark Miller's disastrous punture yesterday, Spaniard Carlos Sainz - stage winner as a result - now leads the cars standings by almost 20 minutes from the American.
10:53The special will begin on the original route until CP3: soon after that they will cut across the loop west to rejoin between CP5 and CP6, which is around the 450km mark of the original route.
10:30The start has been postponed for 30 minutes due to heavy fog. Bikes stage 9 winner Frans Verhoeven will be first to depart.
-Above there is a plan to show the varying surfaces on today's route, which lasts 686km. Or should do: the news reaching us is that due to low levels of sand, organisers have reduced the stage by 200km to 476km.
-A description of what awaits the competitors is on the left-hand side: there are many pitfalls which could spell disaster by the end of the day.
-Welcome to coverage of stage 10 of the Dakar Rally, a loop which begins and ends in Copiapo - the longest and most difficult of the race.

*Dakar 2009 Car - Dakar 2009

   TimeDiff
1G.DE VILLIERS48:10:57    
2M.Miller48:19:56   +  00:08:59.00
3R.Gordon49:57:12   +  01:46:15.00
4I.TOLLEFSEN54:15:31   +  06:04:34.00
5K.Holowczyc54:48:46   +  06:37:49.00
6D.DEPPING56:54:26   +  08:43:29.00
7M.ZAPLETAL59:14:05   +  11:03:08.00
8L.Novitskiy61:26:10   +  13:15:13.00
9G.Chicherit63:00:46   +  14:49:49.00
10N.Roma65:38:43   +  17:27:46.00

*Dakar 2009 Moto - Dakar 2009

   TimeDiff
1M.Coma52:14:33    
2C.DESPRES53:40:11   +  01:25:38.00
3D.Fretigne53:53:29   +  01:38:56.00
4D.Casteu54:32:27   +  02:17:54.00
5H.Rodrigues54:36:44   +  02:22:11.00
6P.Ullevalseter54:39:35   +  02:25:02.00
7J.Viladoms54:43:02   +  02:28:29.00
8F.VERHOEVEN55:05:12   +  02:50:39.00
9H.Knuiman55:37:14   +  03:22:41.00
10P.Goncalves56:27:15   +  04:12:42.00

*Dakar 2009 Truck - Dakar 2009

   TimeDiff
1F.Kabirov49:34:46    
2V.CHAGIN49:38:25   +  00:03:39.00
3G.DE ROOY50:34:42   +  00:59:56.00
4I.Mardeev56:21:16   +  06:46:30.00
5F.ECHTER56:54:27   +  07:19:41.00
6A.de Azevedo59:06:04   +  09:31:18.00
7P.Vila65:41:26   +  16:06:40.00
8W.VAN GINKEL66:04:33   +  16:29:47.00
9J.JUVANTENY69:28:31   +  19:53:45.00
10Z.SZALLER70:01:47   +  20:27:01.00