(Reuters) – Qatar’s Nasser Al Attiyah stayed comfortably forward within the Dakar Rally as Sebastien Loeb moved again into second place with a stage victory at first of week two in Saudi Arabia on Sunday.
Loeb’s second stage win of 2022 left France’s 9 instances world rally champion, driving for the Bahrain Raid Xtreme workforce, some 45 minutes adrift of his manufacturing unit Toyota rival within the automotive class with 5 phases to go.
Al Attiyah, chasing his fourth Dakar title within the desert dunes, was second within the 402km timed seventh stage from the capital Riyadh west to Al Dawadimi however greater than 5 minutes slower than Loeb.
“The second week of the Dakar is one other race… as we speak from the start we weren’t pushing however within the final half we pushed a little bit simply to see,” mentioned the Qatari, runner-up final yr to French Dakar nice Stephane Peterhansel.
Loeb mentioned he had engine issues within the final 50km, costing him valuable time.
“There is not any technique…we’ll do our race, try to assault and see what occurs in the long run,” he mentioned.
Frenchman Adrien Van Beveren took the general lead within the bikes from Britain’s Sam Sunderland, who fell again to fourth and a few five-and-a-half minutes off the tempo after ending twenty eighth.
Chilean rider Jose Ignacio Cornejo received the stage on a Honda.
Australian Daniel Sanders, Sunderland’s GasGas workforce mate who received the primary and sixth phases, was taken to hospital after crashing and injuring his left arm on the way in which to a timed stage he had been as a result of lead off in.
“It was a little bit of a tough day. It began out unhealthy for Sanders with a crash within the liaison after which the stage was actually, actually tough with the navigation,” mentioned Sunderland.
“We nonetheless have so many lengthy days in entrance of us and I’m certain there will be some extra alternatives to assault, to recuperate a while.”
Russian Dmitry Sotnikov led the truck class and Frenchman Alexandre Giroud the quadbikes.
The rally ends in Jeddah on Friday.
(Reporting by Alan Baldwin in London, enhancing by Toby Davis)
