After a week of tough desert racing action on the 2006 Lisboa-Dakar, the official Iveco truck of Makku Alen and Miki Biasion have dropped out, leaving the chase for honours resting firmly on the shoulders of Pepe Vila in the third of the huge 13-litre Trakker AT190T44W 4x4s.

Day five of the rally on Wednesday, had seen former Lancia World Rally Champion Miki Biasion finally retiring after been right in contention at the front. His truck was damaged on the previous stage and the Motorsport Italia mechanics were unable to repair in in time for the start of the stage, forcing the Italian to abandon the rally. Prior to this, he had swiftly climbed up the rally leaderboard to as high as second place overall, an excellent achievement especially considering that it was the first major event for the Trakker AT190T44W 4x4s and Biasion was himself unfamiliar with the vehicle as preparation had only been completed a short time prior to the famous desert raid commencing. These giant new Iveco racing trucks are powered by six-cylinder 12,880cc Cursor 13 turbodiesel engines, combined with a 16-speed ZF manual gearbox. "It is a shame, as the truck demonstrated itself to be competitive." said a disappointed Biasion afterwards.

Wednesday's stage, a 350 km run from Ouarzazate to Tan Tan, was won by the Russian Tchaguine in the Kamaz, while Biasion's team mates both lost time, but vitally though completed the rugged stage. Pep Vila finished 21st, 1 hour 34 minutes 11 seconds behind Tchaguine, while Markku Alén was 25th, and lost 2 hours 1 minute 55 seconds to the rally leader. In the general rankings, Vila was now up to 9th, 3 hours 23 minutes 41 seconds back, with Alén 13th at 3 hours 55 minutes 15 seconds.

The third of the giant new Trakker's, known as 'Espana1' and piloted by Pepe Vila, was now forced to switch from its support role to Biasion and Alen, to become the Motorsport Italia team leader, with all hopes for a decent finish in Dakar now resting on the Spanish veteran's shoulders. A solid run on the day's stage saw him finish in 11th place overall, 1 hour 20 minutes and 22 seconds behind the Kamaz of Tchaguine, who quite simply continues to totally dominate the event. The result kept Vila in 9th place on the leaderboard, 4 hours 44 minutes 3 seconds behind the rally leader.

Yesterday's special stage (Day 7) was almost 500km long, but it was mainly the presence of three very technical route sections that slowed the competitors down. On these three passages, each of over 80km and including the famous El Beyyed erg, all the crews needed to avoid the traps sprung by the very soft sand as well as the constantly varying terrain. Shovels came in handy yesterday, and the difficulties didn't stop there, on several occasions, just finding the right route and avoiding losing too much time, was to be test in itself.

And a stern test it proved to be for Vila, eventually, after a day of difficulties, they completed the stage in 18 hours, in last place, in last place, 9 hours 34 minutes 55 seconds (includes a 1 hour time penalty) adrift of the of the stage winning MAN TGA 4X4 truck of Dutchman Hans Stacey who won his first stage of the 2006 Dakar, finally breaking the rally-long crushing dominance of the Kamaz team.

Going into the 508km long 8th stage from Atar to Nouakchott today, the two factory Russian Kamaz 4911 entries continue to lead the rally from the front. Tchaguine has a solid 1 hour 22 minute advantage over his team mate Kabirov, although Stacey is just nine minutes further back in 3rd place. Pepe Vila in the sole remaining Iveco Trakker having slid down the leaderboader, following yesterday's trials, is now in 21st place overall, 13 hours 38 minutes 54 seconds adrift of the rally leader. Motorsport Italia's two smaller Eurocargo 140E2 trucks though are still running well in the general classification, Garosci is now in 23rd place, 16 hours 39 minutes 23 seconds back, while Trucco is in 33rd, 20 hours 44 minutes 38 seconds off the lead. Just 63 trucks survive in the event with 8 days remaining before they arrive in Dakar.