Nasser Al-Attiyah extended his lead in the Dakar Rally on Friday to a 48-minute lead over his nearest challenger, following Saudi Yazeed Al-Rajhi replaced French Sebastien Loeb as the Qatari driver’s closest rival in the car category.
Argentine Orlando Terranova, Loeb’s teammate in Bahrain Red Extreme, won the seventh stage around the Saudi capital, Riyadh, which was held amid tight security following an explosion in Jeddah last week.
Matthias Ekström, the Audi driver, came second, while Al-Rajhi came third.
Al-Attiyah, the Toyota driver, finished tenth at this stage, leading the general classification by 48 minutes and 54 seconds over Al-Rajhi, who is currently one and a half minutes ahead of the nine-times world rally champion Loeb.
Three-time Dakar Rally winner Al-Attiyah said: “We are happy to finish the first week of the Dakar Rally with a good lead, the car runs well. We will try to cross next week without any risk.
The motorcycle category was stopped following 101 km of the stage due to bad weather.
Britain’s Sam Sunderland retained the overall lead following finishing second behind teammate Daniel Sanders.
Saturday will be a rest day in the race, which ends in Jeddah on January 14.
