Toyota’s Nasser Al-Attiyah has stretched his overall lead with another stage win as Sebastien Loeb’s 2023 Dakar Rally got even worse.
Loeb (Bahrain Raid Xtreme) rolled his Prodrive Hunter during Stage 5 and while he still finished the day ninth-fastest, he lost 19:58s more relative to Al-Attiyah.
The Frenchman had won Stage 4 despite a late power steering failure, but that only came after copping three punctures on Stage 2 and then having to stop for running repairs on Stage 3, and he is 1:53:41s from top spot overall.
“I think we were doing a good stage, but I made a mistake on a tricky dune,” admitted Loeb of his latest calamity.
“We landed and hit a big bit of camel grass and ended up with the car on its side.
“So, we lost some time for this, but for the rest it was a good stage.
“There was no problem with the car, so that was quite good”.
The battle for stage honours on a sandy 373km special around Ha’il was a three-way contest between the men who have collectively won the last eight Dakars.
Stephane Peterhansel led early on and his Team Audi Sport team-mate Carlos Sainz was thereabouts throughout, with the latter finishing the day 1:57s slower than the #200 Toyota Hilux of Al-Attiyah.
Peterhansel was another 1:47s slower in third in the end, but moves to second overall at 22:36s behind, with Yazeed Al Rajhi (Overdrive Toyota) almost five minutes further back in third.
Sainz sits fourth, 34:52s in arrears of the rally-leading Qatari, with Al-Attiyah’s factory Toyota team-mate Henk Lategan last of those still within an hour of the benchmark pace.
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Overall classification: Cars Top 10
| Pos | Driver | Co-driver | Team | Time/Gap |
| 1 | Nasser Al-Attiyah | Mathieu Baumel | Toyota Gazoo Racing | 20:47:36 |
| 2 | Stéphane Peterhansel | Edouard Boulanger | Team Audi Sport | +0:22:36 |
| 3 | Yazeed Al Rajhi | Dirk von Zitzewitz | Overdrive Racing | +0:27:01 |
| 4 | Carlos Sainz | Lucas Cruz | Team Audi Sport | +0:34:52 |
| 5 | Henk Lategan | Brett Cummings | Toyota Gazoo Racing | +0:57:58 |
| 6 | Lucas Moraes | Timo Gottschalk | Overdrive Racing | +1:01:43 |
| 7 | Giniel De Villiers | Dennis Murphy | Toyota Gazoo Racing | +1:07:57 |
| 8 | Mattias Ekstrom | Emil Bergkvist | Team Audi Sport | +1:35:56 |
| 9 | Martin Prokop | Viktor Chytka | Orlen Benzina Team | +1:52:05 |
| 10 | Romain Dumas | Max Delfino | Rebellion Racing | +1:52:10 |
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