Qatar’s Nasser al-Attiyah slides to overall second with Frenchman Loeb leading by 28 seconds

Decorated Frenchman Sebastien Loeb scorched to victory in the second stage of the Dakar Rally yesterday to send the nine-time rally world champion clear in the overall standings.
 Loeb completed the 275km timed section between Resistencia and San Miguel de Tucuman in northern Argentina in 2hr 06min 55sec for his fifth career stage victory in the gruelling race. Last year he finished ninth overall.
 Yesterday’s performance on day two of the race was enough to lift him clear in the overall classification as he saw off Qatari opening-day winner Nasser al-Attiyah by 1min 23sec and fellow Peugeot man Carlos Sainz of Spain by 2min 18sec. That gave Loeb a 28sec overall lead over al-Attiyah and he leads Sainz by 1min 56sec.
 Al-Attiyah and French navigator Matthieu Baumel opened the road in the first of eight official Toyota Hiluxes after their stage win on Monday.
 The minor oil leak that had caused a scare at the stage end was repaired and the duo were the first crew through PC1, after 120km.
 The Qatari, a two-time winner of the Dakar, maintained a superb pace throughout the stage, despite running first on the road, and posted the target time of 2hr 06min 55sec.
 This was sufficient for the Toyota Gazoo Racing South Africa driver to record the second fastest time, although he slipped 28 seconds behind the stage-winning Frenchman Loeb in the overall rankings.
 South African Giniel de Villiers and German co-driver Dirk von Zitzewitz also delivered a consistent performance in the second Toyota Gazoo Racing car and the fourth quickest time elevated the South African to fourth overall.
 The Spanish crew of Joan Roma and Alex Haro were also on an excellent pace throughout the stage and Roma carded the fifth quickest time and held a similar position in the overall rankings in his Overdrive Toyota.
 The Dutch crew of Erik van Loon and Wouter Rosegaar climbed a place to ninth in the overall rankings in the second of the Overdrive cars to ensure that Toyota maintained four cars inside the top 10.
 After a long liaison across the heart of the Grand Chaco, the day’s special stage of 275km started near the town of Monte Quemado in the Province of Santiago Del Estero.
 The tracks round their way through three passage control points to finish to the east of the city of San Miguel de Tucumán and a short liaison took teams to the bivouac.
 The trucks shared the special with the motorcycles, cars and quads for the first section before the trucks switched to an alternative route and returned to the common track at PC1.
 Today, the route of the Dakar begins a steady climb into the foothills of the Andes with a special stage between San Miguel de Tucumán and San Salvador de Jujuy. Trucks will tackle a radically different special to the rest of the field, but the cars will compete over 364 competitive kilometres in a day’s route of 780km.
 Australia’s KTM rider and defending champion Toby Price, meanwhile, took the overall race lead on the motorbikes as he landed the day’s stage honours.
 Price, 29, covered the 275km in 2hr 37min 32sec, ahead of Austrian Matthias Walkner and Spaniard Paulo Goncalves. Both of the Aussie’s pursuers are now more than two-and-a-half minutes adrift in the overall standings.
 Price finished the opening day in overall 17th position.
 This year’s Dakar Rally takes competitors into high altitudes during 9,000km of racing, culminating in a grandstand finish at Buenos Aires on January 14.