(Reuters) – Five-times winner Nasser Al-Attiyah hit trouble in the Dakar Rally on Wednesday, the latest frontrunner to struggle in the Saudi Arabian sands after the departures of Sebastien Loeb and defending champion Carlos Sainz.
The Qatari, driving a Dacia Sandrider, started the day in second place and chasing Toyota’s South African leader Henk Lategan but dropped to seventh and 35 minutes adrift after suffering wheel issues.
Local hero Yazeed Al-Rajhi won the 415km stage four from Al-Henakiyah to Al Ula for the Toyota Overdrive Racing team, with Lategan four minutes and 51 seconds slower.
Lategan’s overall lead shrank to six minutes and 54 seconds, with Al-Rajhi again his closest rival after moving up from fourth.
France’s nine-times world rally champion Loeb, Al-Attiyah’s teammate, was ruled out with a damaged car on Tuesday while four times Dakar winner Sainz went out on Monday after rolling his Ford.
In the motorcycle category, Australian Red Bull KTM rider Daniel Sanders stretched his lead to 13 minutes and 26 seconds over Spaniard Tosha Schareina after a fourth stage win out of five, including the prologue.
Botswana’s Ross Branch remained third overall, with defending champion Ricky Brabec of the United States in fifth place but nearly half an hour off the lead.
The two-week rally ends on Jan. 17.
(Reporting by Alan Baldwin in London, editing by Christian Radnedge)
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