January 9, 2016 – Carlos Sainz recorded Peugeot’s sixth consecutive stage victory in Dakar 2016 on Saturday, while Sebastien Loeb retook the lead from Stephane Peterhansel.
Shrugging off an array of mechanical issues that robbed him off the overall lead on Friday, Loeb immediately reclaimed the top spot and led the timesheets, whilst Peterhansel was fourth quickest, dropping behind Qatar’s X-Raid MINI driver Nasser Al-Attiyah who set the third quickest time.
The #Peugeot2008DKR may be big but Sébastien Loeb shows off its feline agility on the dakar rally corners #Dakar2016 https://t.co/tYiQVTYKzj
— Dakar RallyRaid Race (@DakarRallyRaid) January 9, 2016
Peugeot’s frontrunning trio are now just five minutes apart and their stranglehold on the overall standings has grown even more comfortable – with Al-Attiyah now 17 minutes behind Sainz.
Meanwhile, completing the top five in the day’s running order was Mikko Hirvonen (Mini), while Peugeot’s fourth driver Cyril Despres finished sixth, one second up on Toyota’s team leader Giniel de Villiers.
Yazeed Al-Rajhi (Toyota), Leeroy Poulter (Toyota) and Nani Roma (Mini) completed the top 10.
Overall standings after Stage 7:
| Pos. | No. | Driver | Car | Time/Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 314 | Sebastien Loeb | Peugeot | 21h46m28s |
| 2 | 302 | Stephane Peterhansel | Peugeot | 2m22s |
| 3 | 303 | Carlos Sainz | Peugeot | 4m50s |
| 4 | 300 | Nasser Al-Attiyah | Mini | 17m36s |
| 5 | 315 | Mikko Hirvonen | Mini | 32m53s |
| 6 | 301 | Giniel de Villiers | Toyota | 33m41s |
| 7 | 319 | Leeroy Poulter | Toyota | 40m19s |
| 8 | 305 | Yazeed Al-Rajhi | Toyota | 42m51s |
| 9 | 307 | Vladimir Vasilyev | Toyota | 53m46s |
| 10 | 317 | Emiliano Spataro | Renault | 1h15m45s |
