Rallying-Ekstrom wins Dakar stage 11 as Al-Attiyah stays on top

Jan 15 : Nasser Al-Attiyah remained on course for a sixth career Dakar Rally win in the top car category after last year's runner-up Henk Lategan hit more trouble in the Saudi Arabian desert on Thursday.

The Qatari, driving for the Dacia Sandriders, finished the stage with an eight minute and 40 second lead over closest rival Nani Roma in a factory Ford.

The 13-stage rally ends on Saturday at Yanbu on the kingdom's Red Sea coast.

"Tomorrow, we just need to do the same as today. If we lose two, three or four minutes it’s no problem. We just need to finish this Dakar in first place," said Al-Attiyah.

Ford's Mattias Ekstrom won Thursday's 346km stage from Bisha to Al Henakiyah, the Swede's third stage win of this year's event.

Al-Attiyah had started the day 12 minutes clear of Lategan, who had slipped back after two nightmare days of mechanical misfortune and navigational errors.

On Tuesday the South African had to drive with no power steering and no windscreen, on Wednesday he got lost and ran out of fuel and on Thursday he broke the bearing on his rear left wheel and dropped to 23rd.

"We saw Lategan stop and we’re sorry for him - it’s never nice to see someone who is fighting but has a mechanical issue but it’s part of this game," said Roma.

Nine times world rally champion Sebastien Loeb was third overall, but 18 minutes and 37 seconds behind his leading teammate, with Ekstrom fourth.

"I really pushed. I think Nani was at a very high pace as well so it’s going to be hard to take time back from him," commented Loeb.

Ekstrom's teammate and four times Dakar winner Carlos Sainz was third on the stage and fifth overall.

In the motorcycle category, reigning champion Daniel Sanders continued despite a broken collarbone but the Australian