Sebastien Loeb slots into second behind Al-Attiyah with fifth Dakar stage win in a row
Nine times world rally champion Loeb, racing for the Bahrain Raid Xtreme team, finished the marathon 12th stage from Empty Quarter to Shaybah three minutes and 19 seconds clear of Audi's Mattias Ekstrom (44).
The Frenchman, who has won six stages in total on this year's event, is now an hour and 27 minutes behind Qatar's Al-Attiyah with two stages remaining before the rally ends in Dammam on Sunday.
Al-Attiyah was third on the stage and can afford to lose time while controlling the race.
"It’s good to finish the marathon stage and bring the car back in good condition. If we finish in the top five each day, that’s OK for me, we have a big enough lead," commented the Qatari.
Loeb became the second driver in Dakar history to win five stages in a row, matching the feat of Finland's Ari Vatanen in 1989, and is on course to equal his best-ever Dakar finish.
"It was a perfect day: no mistakes, no stalling, no about turns. We drove well and the car worked perfectly. Second place is our goal, that’s why we’re pushing," said the Frenchman, whose chances of winning disappeared in the early stages.
"I prefer to be in the situation we are in now than the one in the first week. We’ve made a big comeback. In general, we’ve had a good rally, but we haven’t had much luck. But that’s just the way it is."
In the motorcycle category, Australian KTM rider Toby Price (35) took over the lead from American Skyler Howes (30) on a factory Husqvarna.
Two times Dakar winner Price leads Howes by 28 seconds.
"I think that trying to have a strategy for the race at this point in time is completely out of the window. I’ve just got to stay on two wheels and stay healthy," said the Australian.
"We need to try and see if we can make some really good time tomorrow, but then again you don’t want to push too crazily and risk an injury or being out of the race completely this close to the finishing line."
The Dakar Rally began in 1978 as a race from Paris across the Sahara to the Senegalese capital but switched to South America in 2009 for security reasons. It moved to Saudi Arabia in 2020.