(Reuters) – Audi’s Carlos Sainz was leading the Dakar Rally on Friday while Sebastien Loeb claimed his second stage victory in the Saudi Arabian desert. Nasser Al-Attiyah’s hopes of defending his title came to an end in the dunes.
Spanish driver Sainz, a three-time Dakar winner, finished the 549km 48-hour Chrono sixth stage with a lead of 20 minutes and 21 seconds over Swedish teammate Mattias Ekstrom, with Loeb coming in third and nine minutes behind.
“We are happy at the moment…but there is still a long way to go. It’s still very open,” said Sainz, 61, after the loop around Shubaytah in his electric-powered car.
Frenchman Loeb, a nine-time world rally champion, driving a Prodrive Hunter for the Bahrain Raid Xtreme team, won the stage in the kingdom’s Empty Quarter by two minutes, with Sainz coming in second and Ekstrom in third.
Al-Attiyah, who was second overall after stage five, encountered steering problems on his Prodrive Hunter after 530km and had to wait for an assistance truck.
The Qatari driver had already dropped to third in Thursday’s first leg of the marathon stage but fell to 17th at Friday’s finish, two hours and 40 minutes off the lead, ending his hopes of a sixth win and a third consecutive victory.
“On the last 50 km we broke the steering and we couldn’t do anything to repair it,” he explained. “We waited for our assistance truck to come, we fixed it and then got to the finish. We’ll try to keep going and we’ll see what we can do.”
“Now we’ll try to play for the world championship. I will also try to help Seb, to be behind him. At least he can win this Dakar.”
Saudi Arabia’s home favorite Yazeed Al-Rajhi, who led overall before the Chrono stage, withdrew after crashing on Friday.
In the motorcycle category, Adrien Van Beveren won the stage while American Honda team mate Ricky Brabec took the overall lead from Botswana’s Ross Branch, whose Hero team mate Joan Barreda withdrew.
Meanwhile, in the truck category, Czech driver Martin Macik led by more than an hour while Dutch defending champion Janus van Kasteren lost two-and-a-half hours with mechanical troubles.
Saudi Arabia’s Yasir Seaidan took the lead in the SSV category ahead of American Sara Price.
Saturday is a rest day in Riyadh before the final week with the finish in Yanbu on Jan. 19.
(Reporting by Alan Baldwin in London, editing by Toby Davis)
