Peterhansel takes seventh Dakar stage to move up to second

Stephane Peterhansel won the seventh stage of the Dakar Rally in Peru on Monday to take back second place and cut Nasser Al-Attiyah's overall lead to 29 minutes.

The Frenchman, a 13 times Dakar winner, gained a position from compatriot Sebastien Loeb after the nine times world rally champion lost half an hour with an electrical problem in his Peugeot.

"We got a bit closer to Nasser, but it'll be very hard to wrest the lead from him," said Peterhansel, who beat Spaniard and fellow Mini driver Nani Roma for his second stage win of the endurance event." Actually, we don't deserve to be ahead of him because he's doing really well and has made no mistakes so far."

Roma moved up to third overall, with Loeb dropping back to fourth. Toyota Hilux driver Al-Attiyah completed the stage with the fourth fastest time but 12 minutes slower than Peterhansel, with 785km of timed competition before the finish in Lima on Thursday.

"Today was difficult, we knew Stephane was going to attack. We lost 11 or 12 minutes, but we've still got about half an hour in the overall," said the Qatari, who had started the day more than 37 minutes clear."

We'll see what we can do these last three days. One of our rear tyres had a puncture with 10 km to go, but we decided to finish the special like this to avoid losing time changing the tyre."

Spain's reigning champion Carlos Sainz (Mini), third in the stage, moved back into the top 10 but more than five hours off the lead. SA's Giniel de Villiers was sixth in the stage in his Toyota Hilux and moved up to 13th overall, but is nearly seven hours off the lead.

The start of the looping 323km timed stage around San Juan de Marcona was delayed an hour by fog.

American Ricky Brabec (Honda) moved back to the top of the motorcycle category, seven minutes clear of French rider Adrien Van Beveren (Yamaha). Britain's 2017 Dakar winner Sam Sunderland (KTM) won the stage and lies fourth overall. SA's Kenneth Gilbert (Husqvarna) is 26th out of 93 riders.

STAGE 7 RESULTS (CARS):

1. Peterhansel / Castera (MINI)                    
2. Roma / Haro (MINI)                                  +04:33
3. Sainz / Cruz (MINI)                                   +09:28
4. Al Attiyah / Baumel (TOYOTA)               +11:58
5. Despres / Cottret (MINI)                            +12:50
6. De Villiers / Von Zitzewitz (TOYOTA)     +16:31
7. Przygonski / Colsoul (MINI)                       +20:50
8. Han / Liao (Buggy)                                     +25:16
9. Ten Brinke / Panseri (TOYOTA)               +25:45
10. Prokop / Tomanek (Ford)                            +26:29

OVERALL CAR STANDINGS AFTER STAGE 7:

1. Al Attiyah / Baumel (TOYOTA)
2. Peterhansel / Castera (MINI)                  +29:16
3. Roma / Haro (MINI)                                 +37:59
4. Loeb / Elena (Peugeot)                            +54:12
5. Despres / Cottret (MINI)                           +01:20:01
6. Przygonski / Colsoul (MINI)                      +02:12:02
7. Prokop / Tomanek (Ford)                          +02:34:58
8. Al Rajhi / Gottschalk (MINI)                      +03:39:33
9. Ten Brinke / Panseri (TOYOTA)             +04:32:31
10. Sainz / Cruz (MINI)                                   +05:15:31