INQUIRER Sports

NEUQUEN, Argentina -- Spain's domination of the first half of the Dakar Rally continued apace on Tuesday as both former two-time world rally champion Carlos Sainz and Marc Coma won the fourth stage of the car and motorbike disciplines respectively.

Their victories helped them extend the overall lead in both categories.

Sainz won his second stage of this edition in beating closest rival Nasser Al-Attiyah, winner of the two other stages, by six seconds to extend his lead over the Qatari to 3mins 46secs.

France's 2006 champion Luc Alphand, who lost significant time on Monday, was third in the stage over two minutes behind.

Sainz said that he could well have won by a larger margin had his tires not let him down.

"We started very well and very quickly," said the 46-year-old, a former goalkeeper who was once considered good enough to have a trial for Real Madrid.

"We soon caught up with Al Attiyah. When he realized it was us he counter-attacked and we both continued to race at a very speedy pace, until I was able to overtake.

"However I started losing air from a tire and I had to stop and pump it back up. It's a shame because I could have done better."

Al Attiyah was not too disappointed to have been beaten by Sainz.

"It's not a problem he won the stage. It's even a good thing for me that he will be leading the way for a stage where there should be sand dunes.

"We did hit the odd tree but this Dakar is really going well and we're right where we want to be."

Coma had earlier strengthened his grip on the motorcycling section after winning the 459km special from Jacobacci.

Coma added to his opening and third stage wins in seeing off Frenchman Cyril Despres - who has virtually given up all hope of winning a third Dakar after losing over an hour in the first three stages - by 1min 17sec and American Jonah Street by 1min 21sec.

Street's showing was enough to take him second overall over 40 minutes off the pace.

David Fretigne of France, fourth on the day, stands third overall.

Coma admitted his third stage win had taken its toll.

"This (the stage) was more physically challenging because I started to feel the efforts of the first few days," said Coma.

"Today (Tuesday), was shorter but really harder than the previous stages."

Earlier, two British competitors in the cars section were placed in an artificial coma in the central town of Santa Rosa after an accident during Saturday's first stage, organizers said.

Suffering from pulmonary problems, Paul Green and co-driver Matthew Harrison were taken to hospital in Santa Rosa where doctors decided to put them in an artificial coma in a bid to speed their recovery.

Organizers said it was expected they would be brought out of the coma on Thursday.

The 2009 edition of the grueling race has been switched this year from Africa to Argentina and Chile because of security fears.

It features 540 competitors from 50 countries and covers 9,000 kilometers spread over 13 stages - three in Chile and 10 in Argentina - with the finish scheduled for Buenos Aires on January 18.

The 2008 Dakar, which was to have started in Lisbon before heading to Africa, was cancelled the day before the scheduled start because of specific terrorist threats made against the event.

It was the first cancellation in the history of the race since its inception in 1979 due to security concerns after four French tourists were murdered in Mauritania.

On Wednesday's fifth stage the competitors will travel from Neuquen to San Rafael, which includes a 506km special.