Sainz retains Dakar lead

Antofagasta - Nasser Al-Attiyah of Volkswagen won the seventh stage of the Dakar Rally cars section on Friday, a 600km special from Iquique to Antofagasta.

Al-Attiyah saw off early race pace-setter Stephane Peterhansel of BMW by 3:29 for his sixth career stage win and finished 4:21 ahead of Spanish team-mate Carlos Sainz, who still leads the overall standings 11:03 ahead of Al_Attiyah.

Mark Miller of the United States, in another Volkswagen, was fourth 8:40 behind Al-Attiyah, with French BMW driver Guarlain Chicherit fifth 15:33 off the pace.

In the motorcycling category, the day's honours went to Frenchman Cyril Despres, who leads the way overall after the longest special stage of the event.

Despres beat out Spanish KTM rival Marc Coma by 29 seconds in finishing in 6:34:14 while French Yamaha racer David Fretigne was third five minutes off the pace.

Overall, Despres has a healthy 1:06.50 lead over Coma with Portugal's Helder Rodrigues of Yamaha 13 minutes further back.

Saturday is a rest day before the 9 000km adventure resumes on Sunday with a 472km special stage from Antofagasta to Copiapo.

Results of the seventh stage of the Dakar Rally on Friday, a 600km special from Iquique to Antofagasta:

Cars:

Stage

1. Nasser Al-Attiyah (QAT Volkswagen) 600 km in 5h 41min 29sec, 2. Stephane Peterhansel (FRA/BMW) 3:29, 3. Carlos Sainz (ESP/Volkswagen) 4:21, 4. Mark Miller (USA/Volkswagen) 8:40, 5. Guerlain Chicherit (FRA/BMW) 15:33, 6. Giniel De Villiers (RSA/Volkswagen) 21:22, 7. Orlando Terranova (FRA/Stradale) 33:08, 8. Krzysztof Holowczyc (POL/Nissan) 41:39, 9. Nicolas Misslin (FRA/Stradale) 47:26, 10. Christian Lavieille (FRA/Nissan) 1:05.07

Overall

1. Carlos Sainz (ESP/Volkswagen) 26:21.23, 2. Nasser Al-Attiyah (QAT/Volkswagen) 11:03, 3. Mark Miller (USA/Volkswagen) 22:06, 4. Guerlain Chicherit (FRA/BMW) 2:02.54, 5. Stephane Peterhansel/(FRA/BMW) 2:03.10, 6. Krzysztof Holowczyc (POL/Nissan) 2:20.58, 7. Carlos Sousa (POR/Stradale) 3:08.58, 8. Guilherme Spinelli (BRA/Stradale)3:23.35, 9. Leonid Novitskiy (RUS/BMW) 4:17.21, 10. Christian Lavieille (FRA/Nissan) 4:28.43

Motorcyclists:

1. Cyril Despres (FRA/KTM), 600 km in 6hr 34min 14sec, 2. Marc Coma (ESP/KTM), at 0:29, 3. David Fretigne (FRA/Yamaha) 5:00, 4. Ruben Faria (POR/KTM) 9:10, 5. Pal Ullevalseter (NOR/KTM) 11:10, 6. Jose Manuel Pellicer (ESP/Yamaha) 14:07, 7. Juan Pedrero Garcia (ESP/KTM) 16:45, 8. Thomas Berglund (SWE/KTM) 18:38, 9. Olivier Pain (FRA/Yamaha) 21:56, 10. Stefan Svitko (SVK/KTM) 26:26.

Overall:

1. Cyril Despres (FRA/KTM) 28hr 10min 13sec, 2. Marc Coma (ESP/KTM) 1: 06.50, 3. Helder Rodrigues (POR/Yamaha) 1:20.08, 4. Pal Ullevalseter (NOR/KTM) 1:25.52, 5. Francisco Lopez (CHI/Aprilia) 1:31.04, 6. Alain Duclos (FRA/KTM) 1:50.6, 7. David Fretigne (FRA/Yamaha) 2:05.57, 8. Jonah Street (USA/KTM) 2:06.28, 9. Juan Pedrero Garcia (ESP/KTM) 2:25.43, 10. Jose Manuel Pellicer (ESP/Yamaha) 2:26.22