Dakar Rally thrown wide open with al-Attiyah win

TWO-TIME champion Nasser al-Attiyah blew the field wide open at the Dakar Rally yesterday, powering his Toyota home four minutes faster than French ace Stefan Peterhansel, who, however took the overall lead.

Run over 500km of dirt and sand tracks through imposing Peruvian canyons from Pisco and San Juan de Marcona, the Qatari set the early pace opening a lead of two minutes after only 80km.

Al-Attiyah won the opening stage on Saturday, but suffered badly on Sunday when his co-pilot fell sick after just 15km.

The Toyota driver, also an Olympic shooting medallist, won the Dakar in 2011 and 2015 and laid down a solid marker here as the four Peugeots struggled to follow him home.

It was a better day for Carlos Sainz, who suffered engine failure on day one, and finished third 05min 47sec adrift.

Sunday’s stage winner, Cyril Despres, lost over eight minutes, but avoided disaster. Defending champion Sam Sunderland rode his KTM to a second stage victory from three in the motorbike section.

The 28-year-old Briton, known as Super Sam to his fans, covered the course in 3:20:43, more than three minutes ahead of his two closest rivals -- Honda’s Argentine Kevin Benavides and his fellow KTM rider, Toby Price of Australia.

The feat saw Sunderland climb top of the overall standings, with Sunday’s stage winner, Joan Barreda, of Spain, starting well but getting lost.

Barreda came in 30 minutes off Sunderland’s mark after losing his way.

“I didn’t find a way-point and I had to go back for 15km to the way point before, and go back almost 30km more,” the Spaniard said, explaining he got lost because he was in the lead with noone to follow.

“I cannot make any more mistakes,” he said. – AFP