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Dakar Rally 2019: Sebastien Loeb fastest as Nasser Al-Attiyah leads

Sebastien Loeb picked up his third stage win of the 2019 Dakar Rally as the event resumed on Sunday, while Nasser Al-Attiyah extended his advantage at the front

Toyota driver Al-Attiyah (pictured above) controlled the majority of the 193-mile Arequipa-San Juan de Marcona stage, which was interrupted by a brief neutralised zone, and halfway through he had built a cushion of nearly two minutes over Loeb.

Both drivers then lost time with around 25 miles remaining looking for a waypoint, but PH Sport Peugeot man Loeb managed to drop less than his rival and turned his previous deficit into a small advantage.

That left the Frenchman to claim his 13th career Dakar stage win by a margin of 2m17s, a result that promotes him from fifth in the general classification to second.

Despite his late error, Al-Attiyah still came away with an enhanced lead of 37m43s over Loeb, thanks to Stephane Peterhansel's struggles.

Peterhansel gave away 22 minutes to Al-Attiyah prior to the neutralised zone getting stuck in the stand while helping Mini stablemate Nani Roma.

While he was able to claw back the gap to as little as 11 minutes he finally ended up losing 18m49s to Loeb after suffering a puncture late on.

As a result, he now sits 41m14s behind Al-Attiyah overall in third.

The best of the Mini 4x4 runners is still Roma in fourth, 45m24s off the pace, but his team-mate Kuba Przygonski suffered a dreadful stage and shipped nearly 90 minutes to the leaders - slipping to sixth overall.

That means Cyril Despres is now up to fifth overall in his Mini Buggy after a relatively incident-free day, albeit 1h23m off the lead.

Harry Hunt likewise encountered severe trouble, losing over two-and-a-half hours, which is likely to result in his Peugeot slipping out of the top 10 overall.

Leading stage six times

Pos Driver Team Car Gap
1 Sebastien Loeb PH-Sport Peugeot 3h39m21.s
2 Nasser Al-Attiyah Toyota Gazoo Racing South Africa Toyota 2m17.s
3 Carlos Sainz X-Raid Mini John Cooper Works Rally Team Mini/BMW 6m56.s
4 Cyril Despres X-Raid Mini John Cooper Works Rally Team Mini/BMW 13m05.s
5 Nani Roma X-Raid Team Mini/BMW 13m08.s
6 Stephane Peterhansel X-Raid Mini John Cooper Works Rally Team Mini/BMW 18m49.s
7 Martin Prokop MP Sports Ford 19m22.s
8 Giniel de Villiers Toyota Gazoo Racing South Africa Toyota 23m29.s
9 Bernhard Ten Brinke Toyota Gazoo Racing South Africa Toyota 27m29.s
10 Yazeed Al-Rajhi X-Raid Team Mini/BMW 49m59.s

Leading positions after stage six

Pos Driver Team Car Gap
1 Nasser Al-Attiyah Toyota Gazoo Racing South Africa Toyota 21h01m31.s
2 Sebastien Loeb PH-Sport Peugeot 37m43.s
3 Stephane Peterhansel X-Raid Mini John Cooper Works Rally Team Mini/BMW 41m14.s
4 Nani Roma X-Raid Team Mini/BMW 45m24.s
5 Cyril Despres X-Raid Mini John Cooper Works Rally Team Mini/BMW 1h19m09.s
6 Jakub Przygonski Orlen Team / X-Raid Mini/BMW 2h03m10.s
7 Martin Prokop MP Sports Ford 2h31m02.s
8 Yazeed Al-Rajhi X-Raid Team Mini/BMW 3h12m25.s
9 Bernhard Ten Brinke Toyota Gazoo Racing South Africa Toyota 4h18m44.s
10 Benediktas Vanagas General Financing Team Pitlane Toyota 5h05m19.s

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