Al-Attiyah survives rocky route to win Dakar stage

Defending champion Nasser Al-Attiyah (Toyota) used all his experience of the rocky conditions to win a tough 430km second stage from Sea Camp to Al-Ula in the 45th Dakar Rally on Monday.

As many of his rivals were held up by a series of punctures, including Sebastien Loeb (Prodrive) who lost almost an hour and a half, the Qatari Al-Attiyah ploughed to a provisional 14-second win over Erik Van Loon (Overdrive).

Carlos Sainz (Audi) was third man home, 5 minutes 5 seconds back, which was enough to give the Spaniard the lead in the provisional general classification, 2min 12sec ahead of Al-Attiyah.

Mathieu Serradori (Century) is running third, 24min 55sec behind Sainz.

"It was absolutely the time to attack and drive a good stage," said Al-Attiyah.

"It was not an easy day. There were a lot of rocks and the navigation wasn't easy. We had one flat tyre, one puncture at the beginning, but after that we tried to be really careful in the stony places. In the sand we pushed and I'm quite happy."

Loeb's hopes of competing for a first ever Dakar title hang in the balance after a stage he described as a "car wreck".

"The whole special was hell," said a stony-faced Loeb as he stepped out of his car which was missing its bonnet, torn off during an impact.

"At the driving level, (it was) completely uninteresting, driving in rocks in slow motion, trying to cross without puncturing and, well, we had three punctures.

"We did everything to drive slowly but there was nothing we could do, it was not at all suitable for a car like ours."

The nine-time world rally champion, who finished second last year, is now down in 31st in the overall standings 1hr 21min off the lead.

'Making jokes'

Meanwhile, American rider Mason Klein took the overall lead in the