After two days and 608 km of timed special stages in Argentina, Gerard de Rooy is leading the truck category of the Dakar Rally in the Iveco-powered Team de Rooy Ginaf truck, closely followed by the Kamaz factory team. The Russian team's drivers, Firdaus Kabirov and Vladimir Chagin, are 4 and 13 min respectively behind de Rooy.

Top truck category favourite, Dutch driver Hans Stacey, in the factory MAN vehicle, had an unlucky start and lost over 1 hour with tyre problems. At the end of the second day he is in 17th place, 1 hour and 12 minutes off the rally leader. Podium candidate Ales Loprais (Tatra) is another to hit early problems, the Czech driver is already 3 hours and 24 minutes back, a massive time differential that will be very difficult to make up again.

Due to the insecure situation in North Africa, the Dakar rally this year is heading through Argentina and Chile, starting and ending in Buenos Aires. The first two stages took place on fast and very dusty tracks through the Argentinean Pampa.

On the Transorientale Rally last year Gerard de Rooy was driving an Iveco Trakker. However due to homologation problems the team has had to change the cab of his kit truck which is now running as a GINAF, a Dutch manufacturer of special transport vehicles. The engine remains the powerful Iveco Cursor 13.

At the end of the second stage of the Dakar Rally yesterday, 475 teams, comprising of 201 bikes, 24 quads, 170 cars and 80 trucks, finished the day in the rankings; the number of official withdrawals on the second day was 17. Today, 694.56 km are on the menu for the third stage; and with 550.74 km of these being timed, it will be the second longest special of the rally. The route includes quick tracks without any great difficulties, but the competitors will have to be careful about the state of their tyres to avoid the pitfalls encountered in the first stage. They will also need to be wary of the vegetation typical of the Pampa, which will be all over the route.