Dakar – Al-Attiyah increases his lead over De Villiers

Nasser Al-Attiyah (Mini) took an important step in the Dakar where the ninth stage was contested between Iquique and Calama (Chile). The Qatari was the closest to winner of the day Nani Roma (Mini) by finishing six minutes behind the Spaniard, but the leader of the event still achieved a great operation since his direct rival Giniel de Villiers (Toyota) gave up almost a quarter of an hour in the fight for victory. Yazeed Al-Rajhi (Toyota) finished almost half an hour behind the reference time.

In the general classification, Nasser Al-Attiyah now has a 24-minute lead over Giniel de Villiers, while Yazeed Al-Rajhi follows at 40 minutes. Krzysztof Holowczyk (Mini) still retains his fourth place, but it is Erik van Loon (Mini) who now completes the provisional top five. Bernhard Ten Brike (Toyota) lost more than an hour and a half in this stage. Romain Dumas (Optimus) retired following a broken gearbox.

The video summary of the ninth stage of the Dakar is visible here.