Following up on his third stage win at this year’s event, Loeb looked set to carve more time out of Sainz’s overall advantage as he led the Spaniard by three minutes, and nearest rival Ekstrom by one minute, entering the final 100km of the Al Duwadimi to Ha’il stage.
But on the all-dirt track run to the stage finish, Loeb dropped over 10 minutes to his rivals to undo all his strong work and provide Sainz with more breathing space.
Ekstrom picked up the lead which he held to the finish to take his fifth stage victory overall at the Dakar Rally and second this year including his prologue triumph.
Ekstrom’s Audi team-mate Stephane Peterhansel made it a German factory 1-2, taking second place off Guerlain Chicherit over the final 10km and by just 25 seconds at the finish, after a total of 458km of competitive running on Monday.
Sainz completed a relatively low-key run to fourth place in his Audi, but with Loeb only 10th the four-time Dakar Rally winner leads the French driver by 24m47s with four stages to go until Friday’s finish.
Source: Autosport