Al-Attiyah takes victory again as Sainz falls away

The 42-year-old driver — who made it four stage wins from four for his Red Bull Buggy team — closed the gap on the overall leader, France's Mini-driving 10-time champion Stephane Peterhansel.

Guerlain Chicherit took second in the stage, 36 seconds behind, while Peterhansel, 47, who has won the race six times on a motorbike and four times in the car discipline, came in over a minute behind the Qatari and saw his lead clipped to 0:05.16.

However, it was not all good news for the Red Bull team as the 2010 winner Carlos Sainz dropped out of contention with a second successive poor day, the winner of the first two stages suffering more problems with his car.

The Spaniard is now over three hours off the pace while another of the contenders American Robby Gordon, who was disqualified last year for his car not conforming to race regulations, also fell out of contention.

He attempted an ambitious maneuver and ended up with his car on its roof, losing more than two hours in the process.

Al-Attiyah, though, was all smiles when he emerged from his car.

“In the dunes at the start, it was very difficult to open the way, but in the end we are here without any problem at all and a good time as well so we are happy,” said Al-Attiyah, who last year showed his all round sporting skills by winning Olympic bronze in the shooting competition.

“Of course, we know that tomorrow (Tuesday) the terrain is going to be less easy for the buggies and we will probably lose a bit of time, but since it should be better for us in Chile, I'm not worried, especially since we are out in front and not far behind Peterhansel.”

The motorbike section saw a change of hands in terms of the overall lead as Frenchman Olivier Pain took over from compatriot and four-time winner Cyril Despres.

The stage honors went to Spanish rider Joan Barreda Bort on a Husqvarna, who recorded his second stage win of this year's race in beating Pain by 8min 23sec while another Frenchman David Casteu was third.

Pain leads Casteu in the overall standings by 0:2.24 with defending champion Despres, dropping to third 0:03.09 adrift.

Pain, whose best finish in six previous editions has been two ninth places including last year, was not getting ahead of himself with regard to winning the race outright.

“I don't want to get overexcited about my place in the overall, the rally's still long and my objective is to finish in the Top 10 every day, and I hope to continue doing this well until the end,” said the 31-year-old.

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