LIMA: Nasser Al-Attiyah looks set to win the Dakar Rally again while Toby Price was the latest rider to take the motorbike lead after the eighth stage on Tuesday.

Apart from a slow puncture, Al-Attiyah stayed remarkably blunder-free again on the 360km, four-hour course from San Juan de Marcona north up the Peruvian coast to Pisco. He extended the lead he’s held for all but one day from 29 minutes to 46.

Barring a major mistake he hasn’t looked like making, the Qatari will win the world’s toughest rally for a third time on Thursday after taking the title in 2011 and 2015. He’s been runner-up three other times, including last year.

The man he regards as his biggest rival, 13-time champion Stephane Peterhansel, found trouble along with the likes of defending champion Carlos Sainz and Cyril Despres in the dunes of Ica. Peterhansel got stuck in the sand twice and lost half an hour, dropping him from second in the general standings to fourth, 53 minutes behind Al-Attiyah.

Peterhansel can still fight for a podium place with Nani Roma and Sebastien Loeb, who are only seven minutes ahead of him. The rest of the dwindling field is more than an hour behind.

Loeb won the stage, his fourth of the rally, by seven minutes from Al-Attiyah. Loeb endured an early puncture but otherwise enjoyed a clean stage.

KTM rider Price seized the overall advantage in the bikes category as previous leader Ricky Brabec’s Honda suffered engine failure early on the eighth stage.

The 27-year-old Brabec held an eight-minute lead over Frenchman Adrien Van Beveren heading into the day, but his engine broke just 56 kilometres into the stage from San Juan de Marcona to Pisco.

KTM rider Matthias Walkner took stage victory as Price finished third on the day to top the standings.

Van Beveren missed the opportunity to claim the lead, losing more than 11 minutes to Walkner to slip to fifth overall.

Australian Price, the 2016 winner, leads Chile’s Pablo Quintanilla by 1min 03sec, with Walkner over five minutes further back in third.

Brabec also pulled out of last year’s race with a broken engine on the 13th stage, having quit on the 10th stage in 2017.

Published in Dawn, January 17th, 2019