Copiapo, Chile - Spanish motorcyclist Cristobal Guerrero remains in a coma following his crash Tuesday on the 10th stage of the Dakar Rally through the Atacama Desert.

"The rider landed with full force on his head in the crash," Ana Quiroga, head of the Atacama regional health authority, told Chilean radio Wednesday.

Guerrero lapsed into a coma following the accident on his KTM motorbike after 160 kilometres of the 467km-long stage and was airlifted to a hospital in Copiapo.

Copiapo, Chile  - Race leader Carlos Sainz on Tuesday continued dominating the Dakar rally when he won the 10th stage that was overshadowed by an accident in which Spanish motorcyclist Cristobal Guerrero was seriously injured.

Sainz in his Touareg seems destined to give VW their first-ever Dakar victory as he has a 24:54 minute lead over American Mark Miller, who is also driving a Touareg.

South African Geniel de Villiers completed a successful day for the German car manufacturer as he ended the day in third place, 41:13 minutes behind.

Stuttgart  - German car manufacturer Mercedes will not rule out helping the former Honda team participate in this season's Formula One season.

Honda last month announced that they were pulling out of Formula One, leaving the English team without an engine maker backing them.

Mercedes motorsport director Norbert Haug on Tuesday is quoted on the autosport. com website as saying that they would not rule out helping the team.

La Serena, Chile  - The end of the 2009 Dakar Rally in Argentina and Chile is still a week away, but it is already clear that it will be one of the toughest editions in history, even before the Atacama Desert almost certainly makes things worse from Tuesday.

Mass withdrawals have forced organizers to shorten stages in recent days, in an effort to retain reasonable numbers of competitors.

Stuttgart  - Ferrari will launch its new F2009 car for the 2009 Formula One season in Mugello Monday while main championship rival McLaren-Mercedes presents its car four days later in Woking.

Snow and sub-zero temperatures have forced Ferrari to switch its launch from Fiorano further south to Mugello and the cold winds of the global financial crisis are also being felt in the sport with costcutting now top of the agenda.

Earlier this week, the Formula One Teams Association (FOTA) unanimously agreed to a set of measures designed to reduce costs for this season by up to 30 per cent, making savings somewhere in the region of a billion euros (1.35 billion dollars).

Buenos Aires  - Qatari Nasser al-Attiyah won the sixth stage of the Dakar Rally on Thursday to increase his overall lead.

However the BMW X3 driver could face a time penalty after a review of whether he went through all the control points on a shortened 178-kilometre stage between San Rafael and Mendoza in Argentina.

Al-Attiyah of the X-Raid team posted 2 hours 7 minutes 26 seconds to finish ahead 5:07 ahead of Giniel de Villiers of South Africa in a Volkswagen Touareg.