DAKAR 2013: Al-Attiyah wins 6th stage and closes on Peterhansel, Sainz retires

Nasser Al-Attiyah won Thursday’s sixth stage of the Dakar Rally and managed to reduce the gap to overall leader Stephane Peterhansel to just over a minute.

Team Qatar Red Bull’s driver, who had lost time to his rival yesterday, recovered more than eight minutes over Peterhansel and finished the day just 1 minute and 18 seconds behind Monster X-Raid’s driver.

Al-Attiyah completed the 438-kilometer special from Arica to Calama in four hours and 52 minutes and obtained his second stage victory of this year’s Dakar. The Mini driving Peterhansel was second, ahead of American Robby Gordon, who crossed the finish line nearly 14 minutes behind Al-Attiyah.

Argentine Orlando Terranova was fourth-fastest in the BMW X3, while Russian Leonid Novitskiy was fifth. South African Giniel de Villiers finished the day in sixth and kept third position overall, 42 minutes behind the leader.

Former world rally champion and Dakar winner Carlos Sainz was forced to retire from the event after engine problems in his Red Bull buggy. Yesterday’s winner Nani Roma also hit trouble and lost all chances of fighting for the overall victory after getting stuck in a dune and losing over an hour to Al-Attiyah.

The rally will enter Argentina tomorrow with the 218-km special stage from Calama to Salta.

Top 10 overall standings after stage six:

Pos Driver Team/Car Time/Gap
1. Stephane Peterhansel X-raid Mini 14h36m16s
2. Nasser Al-Attiyah Red Bull Buggy + 1m18s
3. Giniel de Villiers Imperial Toyota + 42m31s
4. Leonid Novitskiy X-raid Mini + 44m47s
5. Guerlain Chicherit SMG Buggy + 1h16m26s
6. Ronan Chabot SMG Buggy + 1h27m52s
7. Nani Roma X-raid Mini + 1h30m52s
8. Bernard Errandonea SMG Buggy + 1h50m37s
9. Carlos Sousa Great Wall + 2h02m55s
10. Orlando Terranova X-raid BMW + 2h05m27s

Stage six top 10 times:

Pos Driver Team/Car Time/Gap
1. Nasser Al-Attiyah Red Bull Buggy 4h52m08s
2. Stephane Peterhansel X-raid Mini + 8m36s
3. Robby Gordon Gordon Hummer + 13m52s
4. Orlando Terranova X-raid BMW + 14m13s
5. Leonid Novitskiy X-raid Mini + 15m48s
6. Giniel de Villiers Imperial Toyota + 17m17s
7. Lucio Alvarez Overdrive Toyota + 25m36s
8. Ronan Chabot SMG Buggy + 25m53s
9. Guerlain Chicherit SMG Buggy + 28m28s
10. Erick Wevers HRX Ford + 30m16s

Via Autosport