Nasser Al-Attiyah ended Peugeot’s winning streak in Monday’s eighth stage of the Dakar Rally, as Sebastien Loeb rolled.Reigning champion Al-Attiyah beat Carlos Sainz to victory by just 12 seconds and new leader Stephane Peterhansel by 31 after 6.5 hours of driving.
The stage ran entirely on Argentinean turf – from Salta to Belen – for a total of 767km, 394 of those timed.
Al-Attiyah reached the first control point quickest than anyone, opening a gap of over a minute over Loeb before the cars reached the mid-stage neutralisation point.
Peterhansel, meanwhile, lost over six minutes after suffering a puncture early on.
By CP3, however, Sainz managed to gain on Al-Attiyah and checked in just 15 seconds behind the Qatari, with Peterhansel slightly over two minutes slower as he chased to recover lost time.
Sainz had led by nearly a minute near the end of the stage, but Al-Attiyah fought back to reclaim the top spot and secure his first win of the 2016 edition in the Mini.
Loeb, meanwhile, appeared to lose all his chances of fighting for victory after rolling his Peugeot 510km into the stage.
The French manufacturer reported both Loeb and co-pilot Daniel Elena – who had already hit trouble when they got stuck in a dune before the roll – were okay, but it is unknown if they were able to continue.
At the time of writing, the Frenchman was waiting for assistance to reach the end of the stage.
The accident means Peterhansel is back in the lead of the rally, 2m09s ahead of Sainz and 14m43s ahead of Al-Attiyah.
Peugeot’s Cyril Despres finishes the day in fourth, 4m40s behind the Mini, while Mikko Hirvonen rounded out the top five.
The ex-WRC driver moves up to fourth in the standings, although he is over 36 minutes off the lead.
Spaniard Nani Roma reached the finish in sixth in the Mini, ahead of Orlando Terranova and Toyota’s Leeroy Poulter and Yazeed Al-Rajhi.
UPDATE: Despite their Peugeot 2008DKR16 sustaining massive damage in the roll, Loeb and Elena have managed to get the car repaired – and crawled to the end of the stage, dropping down to eighth in the overall standings.
How it happened: Stephane Peterhansel
“I don’t know what happened because 100 kilometres before the end we overtook him in the off-track part. I don’t know if he had a problem but he was not really fast. After that, when we started to drive on the tracks again he was faster than me. I stopped and he overtook me again… no, no, not again, he overtook me, and after that, 20 kilometres from the end at a large river, with the speed at around 120 kmph, there was a big hole and he crashed into the hole and rolled. I don’t know how many rolls, but he was ok, he was out of the car and told us it was ok and we could go. We have lost one car, so it’s less comfortable than before”.