WADI AD DAWASIR, Saudi Arabia: Sebastien Loeb chipped another seven minutes from the Dakar Rally lead of Nasser Al-Attiyah, who finally struck mechanical trouble on Monday in stage eight in Saudi Arabia.
Al-Attiyah, leading for a 10th straight day, was still up by 38 minutes on Loeb, but the Qatari has lost 12 minutes to the chasing Frenchman since the rest day on Saturday, and was starting to feel nervous.
Loeb opened the way and punctured just 28 kilometers into the 395-kilometer special from Al Dawadimi south to Wadi Ad Dawasir. Loeb then also lost his only other spare wheel, forcing him to drive carefully, and yet he pushed hard enough to be third on the stage.
Al-Attiyah also punctured and also drove extra carefully because he suspected he broke the rear differential installed on Sunday, leaving him in front-wheel drive for most of the way.
“I was scared, because we have done a very good job from the beginning and now if we start to have problems ...,” he said. ”We’ll try to respect the Dakar.”
Mattias Ekstrom of Sweden earned his first stage win in his Dakar debut, winning by 49 seconds from Audi teammate Stephane Peterhansel, whose bonnet came off after one dune jump and who lost his bearings at the very end of the stage. Loeb’s ProDrive was third, three minutes later, and three seconds ahead of Carlos Sainz’s Audi. Al-Attiyah’s Toyota was 10 minutes down in 11th.
Sam Sunderland won the motorbike stage in dominant fashion and regained the overall lead with four stages to go.
Sunderland was the 28th rider to start and took advantage of the others’ tracks. The British rider led the whole way, winning the stage by three minutes from Pablo Quintanilla of Chile, who moved up to fourth overall. Matthias Walkner of Austria was third and remained second overall, nearly four minutes behind Sunderland.
Adrien van Beveren lost the overall lead when he was more than 10 minutes off the pace, finishing the stage ninth. The Frenchman dropped to third overall, nearly five minutes back.
Also having a bad day was defending champion Kevin Benavides of Argentina, who fell from third overall to sixth, from five minutes behind to nearly 15.
“With the glory of winning, you have the punishment of opening the stage the next day,” Sunderland said. “At the same time, if you want to win the race you have to win some stages.”