QAISUMAH, Saudi Arabia — France's nine-time world
rally champion Sebastien Loeb won the second stage of the
Dakar Rally in Saudi
Arabia on Monday, a 338km drive from Ha'il to Qaisumah.
اضافة اعلان
The 47-year-old timed 3min 28sec faster than Qatar's
three-time Dakar victor Nasser al-Attiyah.
Loeb remains in second spot overall after his 15th career
stage win but having reduced the overall gap between himself and Attiyah to
just over nine minutes.
"It was a real match," said Loeb. "At the end
it became a
World Rally Championship (WRC) special between two WRC drivers.
"I managed to claw back the difference little by
little, without doubt because he (Attiyah) had cleared the track.
"It's easier when you are behind, so if I follow him,
then I can follow easily; if he follows me if I overtake, he can follow easily.
So I prefer for him to take the risks rather than me."
Spain's
Joan Barreda Bort won the motorbike special with a
5min 33sec advantage over Britain's Sam Sunderland. It was the Spaniard's 28th
career special stage win.
It was the perfect pick-me-up for Bort, who, had lost a lot
of time in Sunday's special.
"Today the only option was to push after the big
mistake yesterday, but we are only on the second day," he told the
official race website.
"For sure, we will have lots of long days with
difficult navigation. … So, for me today was good to recover a good feeling.
Riding on the dunes is always fun, so I tried to enjoy riding all the stage,”
he added.
Sunderland had the consolation of taking the overall lead ahead
of Adrien Van Beveren of France with overnight leader Australian Daniel Sanders
dropping to third overall.
"It's always nice to lead the rally, but we’ve got a
long way to go," Sunderland told the race website.
The Dubai-based 32-year-old is bidding for a second win in
the grueling rally having become the first Briton to be crowned champion in
either category in 2017, when it was raced in South America.
Sunderland says experience tells him an early overall lead
counts for little.
"It doesn't mean so much because we know this
race," he said.
"The navigation is so tricky and it looks like every
day when the guys are opening they are losing a lot of time. … There are so
many long difficult days to come, I’m sure, so I'm sure there will be a lot
more switching around, but of course it's still good to lead and it shows that
we are on point and on pace,” he added.
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