Dakar legend Stephane Peterhansel took charge of the Central Europe Rally on stage two while in the bikes category Marc Coma crashed out.

The French veteran Peterhansel only finished third on the 292km Baia Mare loop but seized the overall lead from Carlos Sainz, who was just sixth.

German Volkswagen man Dieter Depping was the star of the day, completing the tortuous route in one hour 24 minutes. He was followed home by BMW's Nasser Al-Attiyah.

The Mitsubishi trio of Peterhansel, Luc Alphand and Nani Roma completed the top five.

Peterhansel said: "Today's stage was a bit like the Camel Trophy, a lot of water, snow, and constant driving up and down through mountains. Under these quite difficult conditions, with a lot of improvisation, we ran a good time and I'm quite happy."

KTM's David Casteu opened up a commanding lead in the motorcycle category, winning stage two by over four minutes.

But the real drama came as his rival Marc Coma crashed out of the race. The Spaniard fell after his front wheel hit a half-buried stone and was thrown off his bike at 70km/h, suffering a knee injury.

Coma was able to finish the stage, but on returning to Baia Mare base was advised to quit and has been flown back to Barcelona for further medical tests.

Earlier in the day he was hit at low speed by a car at low speed before the stage had even got under way.

"It was a hard fall, although I was able to get up, continue and finish the special. But I was hurt," said Coma.

"I went back to Baia Mare to get assistance and tried to ride off to the day's second special, but I realised that I was really hurt."

STAGE TWO RESULTS

Car

1 - Depping-Gottschalk (VW) 1:24:25

2 - Al-Attiyah-Thorner (BMW) +0:35

3 - Peterhansel-Cottret (Mitsubishi) +0:41

4 - Alphand-Picard (Mitsubishi) +0:53

5 - Roma-Cruz Senra (Mitsubishi) +2:04

Bikes

1 - David Casteu (KTM) 1:31:07

2 - David Fretigne (Yamaha) +4:04

3 - Jonah Street (KTM) +4:26

4 - Francisco Lopez (KTM) +4:32

5 - J. M. Pellicer (Yamaha) +4:35

OVERALL STANDINGS

Cars

1 - Peterhansel-Cottret (Mitsubishi) 2:06:04

2 - Sainz-Perin (VW) +0:22

3 - Depping-Gottschalk (VW) +0:29

4 - Alphand-Picard (Mitsubishi) +1:31

5 - Roma-Cruz Senra (Mitsubishi) +2:42

Bikes

1 - David Casteu (KTM) 2:12.40

2 - Francisco Lopez (KTM) +4:32

3 - David Fretigne (Yamaha) +4:49

4 - Jaro Katrinak (KTM) +5:33

5 - Jonah Street (KTM) +6:33

Alex Chick / Eurosport