(Reuters) – Qatar’s Nasser Al Attiyah was on the brink of his fourth Dakar Rally victory after ending Thursday’s penultimate stage in Saudi Arabia with a 33 minute benefit over French rival Sebastien Loeb.
The forty fourth version of the endurance occasion ends in Jeddah on Friday after a 680km leg from Bisha, together with a 164km particular stage.
Spaniard Carlos Sainz, a triple Dakar winner, received the eleventh stage for Audi with Al Attiyah seventh within the loop round Bisha. It was his second stage win of 2022 and forty first of his profession in addition to a fourth for Audi’s electrical hybrid automobile.
Nine instances world rally champion Loeb was categorised eighth after being handed a 5 minute penalty for rushing in a restricted zone.
“We are in a great way. Tomorrow is a shorter stage. We simply have to proceed like this on the identical tempo,” commented Al Attiyah, who has led from the Jan. 1 begin in his manufacturing facility Toyota.
“To management the Dakar will not be simple, however I feel we’ve rather a lot of expertise now and we simply have to handle the state of affairs and to complete. You don’t have to win each day.”
In the motorbike class, Britain’s Sam Sunderland returned to the highest with a lead of six minutes and 52 seconds over Chile’s Pablo Quintanilla.
Argentine Kevin Benavides, final yr’s rally winner on two wheels, received the stage however is out of competition after accumulating a 15 hour penalty on Thursday when his bike suffered a mechanical downside.
“I’ll simply try to have a clear stage tomorrow and hopefully we will get it accomplished,” mentioned GasGas rider Sunderland, Dakar winner in 2017.
“Quite a bit of guys type of took it simple yesterday on the stage to have a greater begin place as we speak. You noticed that as we speak all people pulled the pin; It was ‘let’s go’. I used to be the identical, all in and right here we’re.”
In the truck class, Russian Dmitry Sotnikov ended the day with an eight minute benefit over Kamaz workforce mate Eduard Nikolaev.
(Reporting by Alan Baldwin, modifying by Toby Davis)
