True character was displayed by South Africa?s Alfie Cox on Monday's ninth stage. Not did he drive like a man possessed in the true form he is known for, but after being penalised and demoralised last week, he continues to fight back.

Tough sand, rocky desert terrain, suffering in the heat, struggling in the dust and keeping the momentum going in the dunes towards the end of the stage was what the teams had to entertain on Monday. Earmarked as the first of the toughest three stages to be contested in the 2009 Argentina Chile Dakar Rally, today?s special stage took the leading car 5 hours and 56 minutes over 449km in what is a state of the art 4x4 machine purpose built with cutting edge technology where budget is not the object.

Even Carlos Sainz, winner of the car stage, was thankful to be out of the stage and was the first to admit it was very, very tough. But Cox and his German co-driver Jurgen Schroder had an excellent day

"It was very tiring, the terrain makes me think of the Sahara, very rocky, dry and dusty," said Cox. "We had a great day other than two flat tyres, but if I look at some of the teams along the way, I realise we must keep focus and we will get to Buenos Airies."

Cox and Schroder started in 27th position on Monday morning and finished in 19th place on the stage.

"We had an awesome day ? I am so happy!" Cox continued.

"We got two punctures towards the end of the stage, the first at about 100km from the finish, I hit the same rock that Depping and I completely damaged the rim, so we had to stop and change the wheel. Then about 5km from home the left rear went. There was a problem with the inflator and we lost time because we had to get out and change the wheel.

"We also had a brake problem and I battled with no brakes in some places, but otherwise I am so-so happy that we had a good day. This made up for all the misery of the first week.

"We are really now racing for the finish, we received penalties of 204 hours for not making it through stage 6 on time and was given permission to race on with these heavy penalties. I accepted the penalties, because only the front 30 cars was not penalised and even so we are more focused on getting through the desert and finishing than on total time and positions. I?m running the Comrades marathon at my own pace, and enjoying it."