SAN JUAN – Qatar’s Nasser Al-Attiyah virtually wrapped up the Dakar Rally on Thursday when he romped to victory in the 11th stage as defending champion Carlos Sainz saw his hopes ended by a broken suspension on his Volkswagen. Al-Attiyah, also in a Volkswagen, finished the 523km special stage between Chilecito and San Juan with a 1min 13sec advantage over France’s Stephane Peterhansel, in a BMW, and 4min 52sec ahead of South Africa’s Giniel de Villiers, in another Volkswagen. But Sainz, a former double world rally champion, saw his hopes shattered after spending over an hour repairing a broken front suspension which brought his car to a halt after 410km. The Spanish veteran had wanted to push hard from the outset having started the day over 12 minutes behind the Qatari, a deficit caused by losing 10 minutes on Wednesday’s traumatic stage.
Sainz eventually finished Thursday’s action 1hr 14min behind Al-Attiyah to be 1hr 27min behind the Qatari in the overall standings. “The car worked very well and there were no problems. There was a lot of dust on the stage, but the good thing is that we finished and we’ll see what we can do tomorrow,” said Al-Attiyah, who now has an overall lead of over 51 minutes on second-placed de Villiers.” Barring a disaster on Friday’s penultimate stage – from San Juan to Cordoba – Al-Attiyah, the runner-up in 2010 after a bitter fall-out with teammate Sainz, will be crowned champion ahead of Saturday’s run to Buenos Aires, a virtual parade stage.
