Double Word Rally champion Carlos Sainz won the first running of the Central Europe Rally ahead of Stephane Peterhansel last weekend.

After the cancellation of the Dakar in January, the works and private Rally-Raid teams finally got the off-road season underway with the inaugural 'Dakar Series' event, run between Hungary and Romania.

The winner of the 2007 FIA Cross-Country Rally World Cup, Sainz, had an eventful rally.

Overall leader on day one, the Spaniard then conceded more than eight minutes during the two Romanian stages run in the Carpathians. But on day four, with the return of the rally to the Hungarian plains, on wider and faster roads, 'El Matador' was in a league of his own.

Indeed at the start of the final stage of the event, on the shores of Lake Balaton, Sainz had an 18-second advantage over the Mitsubishi Pajero of Stéphane Peterhansel, who had been leading since Monday.

On this last 157km-long stage, which the car competitors were tackling for the third time, the Spaniard steadily widened the gap on the Mitsubishi driver, who in turn stopped after the first checkpoint (CP1) after a navigational error.

Sainz eventually won by just over 2 minutes: "We were at 100 per cent all the time, despite the surfaces being difficult on some stages, with mud and a lot of changes of grip, and some that were covered in loose gravel," he reflected.

"In this context, you really had to have complete confidence in your tyres and I am very satisfied with my BFGoodrich Rock T/As.

"As well as their performance, I have to salute them for their toughness, because I have not had a single problem or puncture all week."

German Dieter Depping, a triple German Rally champion, but a 'rookie' in Rally-Raids, and Luc Alphand meanwhile were left to squabble for the final place on podium.

In the end, it was the Volkswagen driver that again took the honours, while Carlos Sousa and Bruno Saby came in fifth and sixth, the latter putting in a face-saving drive for the BMW X-Raid squad.

The unforgiving pace was the reason for the elimination of a number of pre-event favourites during the hectic week, including the USA's Mark Miller and South African Giniel de Villiers, who both made costly errors, while Nani Roma and Nasser Al-Attiyah suffered mechanical woes.