Nasser Al-Attiyah has reduced the gap to Dakar Rally leader Stephane Peterhansel after winning the sixth stage of the event by a substantial margin. The Qatari driver was more than 8 minutes faster than the Frenchman on the 438-kilometer special.
Al-Attiyah remains second overall, but has reduced the Peterhansel’s advantage from ten to just a single minute, following his dominant performance on Thursday.
Robby Gordon was third fastest on his hummer, a further five minutes behind Peterhansel, followed by Orlando Terranova and Leonid Novitskiy.
Al Attiyah’s Red Bull Buggy teammate Carlos Sainz was forced to retire from the rally after being hit by engine problems, while Peterhansel’s X-Raid teammate Nani Roma also hit trouble and lost more than an hour to the leaders.
Overall results 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