Gallery: an evening in the Dakar pits

17.03: Arrival into camp for Carlos Sainz in his Red Bull buggy. The quick cars arrive about the same time as the bikes. Trucks won't be in for hours yet. Nor will those who have had any issues out on the course.

17.04: Time cards are checked and stamped before the competitors are allowed into the Bivouac. The organisers lay on this enormous campsite to cater for 2500 people every night, including full catering.

17.34: Driver debrief. Here, X-Raid's Stephane Peterhansel, eleven-time Dakar champion, talks to team boss Sven Quandt about any issues he's had with the Mini Countryman during the day. The chap in white in the background is current race leader Nani Roma.

17.40: Sleeping, resting? You take the opportunities where you can.

17.55: Provided there been no issues, just a routine service will be needed. Not this time for one of the Minis, though. Chilean driver, Boris Garafulic, made a navigational error, and ended up driving through a rock field. This ripped the underside of his car to bits.

18.05: An angle-grinder is taken to the underside of the Mini. What I love about X-Raid is the professionalism and attention to detail. While one man cuts deep into the Mini, another just behind him...

18.06: ... dusts the badge, making sure it looks as clean and tidy as possible for the following day. This would seem to be a futile gesture, but I love the attention to detail.

21.00: Team briefing at X-Raid. This is an enormous team, 150 people, 12 cars and one racing truck, so there's a nightly debrief where timings are checked, issues are reported and the next day is analysed and organised.

21.56: No other team is as big as X-Raid. Most are single car entries, so any major repair jobs are fairly daunting when there's only a few of you to carry them out. Here an angle grinder is taken to the front wheel hub of a pick-up.

22.20: Less action here implies this buggy has come through today's stage largely unscathed. Still, it needs a full check-over and that'll take several hours.

22.32: Kamaz trucks: you might never have heard of them, but the brand is huge in Russia and massively successful in the Dakar, currently lying second, third, fifth and sixth in the truck category.

22.45: At the end of stage two Race2Recovery were hopeful of getting this Wildcat back going for the following day's stage, after it had done a forward roll down a sand dune. Alas, it was not to be, and the team had to pull both cars out after only two stages, the other having suffered a head gasket failure.

22.57: In the pits with Kamaz again: heavy duty welding required to shore up one of the trucks.

23.19: Bivouacs are variable. Some are hard and rocky, others, like this one, are softer. Some contain snakes or scorpions, others vicious thorns.

23.48: KH-7 is a Spanish household cleaning product. I suspect much will be used tonight.

00.05: Gone midnight and work is being carried out on one of the small Polaris racing buggies.

00.21: Excellent taste being exhibited by this team, with a pair of Range Rovers as support cars. The Range Rover Sport in the background has a roof tent - excellent idea to get you away from any creepy-crawlies.

00.44: Dutch truckers - equipped with a good honest toolbox.

01.02: TV presenters: about the only people in the paddock that are clean. There are often showers about but they're rarely heated.

01.12: Love these little buggies, but they look and feel rather insubstantial compared to the bigger stuff. Still, one up on a quad bike.

01.30: Another Bowler Wildcat - think this one is being run by a French team. Looks in pretty good nick

01.35: The catering area. Dakar is still a French-organised and run event, which means food is a key part of proceedings. The menu varies, but there's always, always cheese and red wine. And yep, hot food is available no matter what time you make it across there.

01.58: There's a lot of this about - people falling asleep in random locations.

02.18: back at X-Raid. Once the cover goes on one of the Minis it means the car is finished and ready to race the next day.

02.20: However, just across the way, welding is still being carried out to the bottom of Garafulic's car. By my reckoning this car has required about nine hours of attention today - the rock field had damaged the underside so badly that there were holes in the spaceframe tubes.

02.25: The end of the night and even the tool kits are cleaned with compressed air before being packed up. The first alarms at X-Raid will be going in less than two hours, the cars and support trucks will roll out about 05.30, ready to do it all over again