RALLYING – QATAR’S Nasser Al-Attiyah will lead the Dakar Rally into its second and final week after winning the sixth stage in the Saudi Arabian desert yesterday to take over at the top from South African rival Henk Lategan.
Al-Attiyah, a five times Dakar winner now competing for the Dacia Sandriders, had been second overnight but turned a deficit of more than three minutes into a six-minute-and-10-second advantage over the 326km timed stage between Hail and Riyadh.
Today is a rest day before the rally resumes in Riyadh tomorrow with seven more stages to the finish in Yanbu on the Red Sea coast on January 17.
Al-Attiyah won yesterday’s stage by two minutes and 58 seconds from teammate and nine times world rally champion Sebastien Loeb, Dacia’s first Dakar one-two, with Toyota’s American Seth Quintero third.
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