Qatari claims another stage

Yanbu – Nasser Al-Attiyah (above) won his fifth stage on the Dakar Rally yesterday when he finished nearly two minutes ahead of leader Stephane Peterhansel, but still trails the Frenchman with one day to go.

Peterhansel will start the final stage, a 225-kilometre run across chains of dunes to Jeddah, leading by a quarter-of-an-hour as he seeks to add to his record 13 victories in the race.

“We lost just a few minutes, it’s nothing,” said Peterhansel at the finish.

“There’s only one day to go... It’s time to cross fingers and hope that we will be in first place at the end”.

The longest stage of the race, a 464-kilometre drive across sand dunes from Al Ula to Yanbu brought a day of changing fortunes.

Peterhansel led with an advantage of more than three minutes over Al-Attiyah after 306 kilometres, but suffered two punctures.

Peterhansel regained the lead and was 38 seconds ahead of the chasing Al-Attiyah 30 kilometres from the finish but could not hold on to the lead.

“Today it was really complicated, like the organisers said beforehand, like we expected it to be, because the navigation was not easy, but we got two punctures, especially the last one that was in the dunes,” the Frenchman said.

Al-Attiyah, driving a Toyota, eventually crossed the line in four hours, 34 minutes and 24 seconds, one minute and 56 seconds ahead of Peterhansel in his Mini, with Spaniard Carlos Sainz in another Mini a further 30 seconds back.

Briton Sam Sunderland, the 2017 Dakar champion, won the motorbike category.

The KTM rider timed four hours, 35 minutes and 21 seconds for the stage, maintaining a comfortable 2:40 lead over the Husqvarna ridden by Pablo Quintanilla.

Argentina’s Kevin Benavides increased his lead in the overall standings over American Honda teammate and defending champion Ricky Brabec to 7:13, with Sunderland currently second, at 4:12. –