Dakar Cars, Stage 11: Al-Attiyah beats Loeb, Peterhansel still leads

The Mini driver won from Peugeot rival Sebastien Loeb, who finished the stage being towed by Cyril Despres after his car stopped right at the end.

Rally leader Stephane Peterhansel finished in fourth, taking another step towards overall victory on Saturday.

Today's 431-km special ran from La Rioja to San Juan, as the Dakar contingent continued moving south toward Rosario, where the event will finish on Saturday.

Loeb and Peterhansel were evenly matched for most of the stage, with the nine-time WRC champion leading at the first four waypoints before Al-Attiyah went quickest at WP5.

The Qatari continued to lead when cars reached the first control point of the day, outpacing Peterhansel by nine seconds and Loeb by 14.

By the fourth and final control point, Al-Attiyah extended his advantage over Loeb to 1m38s and over Peterhansel by nearly five.

But Loeb's challenge for stage victory took a hit near the end, when the Frenchman's Peugeot stopped after the final waypoint, less than 2km from the finish line.

Loeb's car had to be towed to the finish by teammate Despres.

Luckily for the former, both Despres and the finish were nearby and he still ended up provisionally quickest until Al-Attiyah reached the end of the stage.

The reigning champion won with a time of 4h49m16s, beating Loeb by 5m52s and Mikko Hirvonen by 7m01s.

Peterhansel lost 8m05s to Al-Attiyah but still holds a healthy 52-minute lead with two stages remaining.

The only change in the top 10 after today's stage is Roma moving in front of Despres and into sixth position. 

Standings after Stage 11:

Pos.	No.	Driver	Car	Time/Gap
1	302	Stephane Peterhansel Jean-Paul Cottret	Peugeot	37h42m20s
2	300	Nasser Al-Attiyah Matthieu Baumel	Mini	51m55s
3	301	Giniel de Villiers Dirk von Zitzewitz	Toyota	1h17m24s
4	315	Mikko Hirvonen Michel Perin	Mini	1h22m47s
5	319	Leeroy Poulter Robert Howie	Toyota	1h46m36s
6	304	Nani Roma Alex Haro	Mini	1h54m34s
7	321	Cyril Despres David Castera	Peugeot	1h56m53s
8	307	Vladimir Vasilyev Konstantin Zhiltsov	Toyota	2h11m31s
9	314	Sebastien Loeb Daniel Elena	Peugeot	2h25m18s
10	323	Harry Hunt Andy Schulz	Mini	2h48m02s