Al-Attiyah stage win trims lead

• Source: Global Times
• [09:07 January 06 2011]
• Comments

Spain's biker Marc Coma rides through the San Rafael canyon. Photo: AFP

Qatar's Nasser Al-Attiyah in a Volkswagen won Wednesday's third stage of the auto section, a 500km special stage between Tucuman and Jujuy as he trimmed the overall lead of Spanish teammate Carlos Sainz.

Al-Attiyah timed 3 hours 42 minutes 20 seconds as he clawed back 25 seconds on Sainz and pushed French BMW driver Stephane Peterhansel into third place after seeing off the latter by 59 seconds to go clear in second spot by 45 seconds.

Sainz, world rally champion in 1990 and 1992, still leads overall by 3 minutes 34 seconds.

In the motorbikes section, Spaniard Marc Coma, riding a KTM, won a 521km special from Tucuman to Jujuy in northern Argentina.

Coma's success saw him close in on the head of the standings as he finished in 4 hours 18 minutes 55 seconds, 2 minutes 2 seconds clear of current leader and French KTM rider Cyril Despres, the triple champion's overall lead is now just 14 seconds.

First-time rally driver Zhou Yuande in a Mitsubishi remained the fastest Chinese driver, finishing in 5 hours 1 minute 9 seconds and climbing to 41st overall.

Team Rely made steady progress despite Lu Ningjun's withdrawal, with Liu Kun rising to 56th overall, nine places ahead of his teammate Jiang Yaohuan.

Despite his win, Al-Attiyah complained that his engine lacked power and he felt he should have made far greater inroads into Sainz's lead.

"I am very disappointed. We had the same problems as Wednesday," said the Qatari. We completely lost power after 200 kilometers. I don't understand it. It's been going on for three days. We have to sort this problem out."

Sainz said the stage had been very tough from the outset.

But "I am more or less happy with my day. We lost a minute and a half on Nasser at the end of the first part before eventually pulling back the lost time by pushing harder in the final section without navigation."

Coma meanwhile revelled in his successful showing, "I am happy to be right up there - I took advantage of a small navigational error by Cyril Despres."

"Marc Coma reined me in very quickly. There were a lot of people out there at the start of the special. I really paid attention for the first 10km but then on km11 I went completely off westwards. I didn't exactly lose two hours but I lost a few precious minutes," Despres admitted.

Agencies - Global Times