Al-Attiyah extends Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge lead as Loeb launches comeback

ABU DHABI: Sebastien Loeb put Bahrain Raid Xtreme on the path to recovery in the World Rally-Raid Championship on Tuesday as archrival Nasser Al-Attiyah extended his lead in the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge.

Loeb and Fabian Lurquin in their BRX Prodrive Hunter were on the verge of an early exit after mechanical problems prevented them from completing Monday’s special stage, ending their hopes of a first win in the event.

BRX technicians worked through the night to fit a new engine to the Prodrive Hunter, and Loeb responded by collecting valuable championship points as he followed Al-Attiyah’s Toyota home on today’s 365 km stage, which looped around Qasr Al-Sarab.

The nine-time World Rally Raid Champion was second quickest on the day to the Qatari, whose second successive desert stage win gave him an overall lead of 18 minutes, 19 seconds from Saudi Arabia’s Yazeed Al-Rajhi in another Toyota.

With Martin Prokop taking his Ford Raptor into third spot, Denis Krotov in a Mini, Seth Quintero in a CAN-AM Maverick X3 and the Toyota of Argentinian Juan Yacopini completed the top six.

Loeb’s misfortune 24 hours earlier brought huge time penalties, and saw him start today’s stage in 11th position under W2RC regulations.

But the Frenchman quickly shrugged of the setback and powered his way past a succession of cars starting ahead of him, serving as a reminder that he remains firmly in world title contention, with championship rounds to follow in Mexico, Argentina and Morocco.

“That was better,” said Loeb at the finish. “The first thing is to thank the team for their big effort last night to work on the car until the early hours.

“We reached the finish in second position today, so we’ve taken some precious points for the