AREQUIPA (Peru), Jan 9: Qatari ace Nasser al-Attiyah won his second successive stage in this year’s Dakar Rally as he triumphed in the fourth stage to give himself a great chance of adding to his triumph in the 2011 edition.

The 42-year-old driver — who made it four stage wins from four for his Red Bull Buggy team — closed the gap on the overall leader, France’s Mini-driving 10-time champion Stephane Peterhansel.

Guerlain Chicherit took second in the stage, 36sec behind, while Peterhansel, 47, who has won the race six times on a motorbike and four times in the car discipline, came in over a minute behind the Qatari and saw his lead clipped to 5min 16sec.

However, it was not all good news for the Red Bull team as the 2010 winner Carlos Sainz dropped out of contention with a second successive poor day, the winner of the first two stages suffering more problems with his car.

The Spaniard is now over three hours off the pace while another of the contenders American Robby Gordon, who was disqualified last year for his car not conforming to race regulations, also fell out of contention.

He attempted an ambitious manoeuvre and ended up with his car on its roof, losing more than two hours in the process.

The motorbike section saw a change of hands in terms of the overall lead as Frenchman Olivier Pain took over from compatriot and four-time winner Cyril Despres.

The stage honours went to Spanish rider Joan Barreda Bort on a Husqvarna, who recorded his second stage win of this year’s race in beating Pain by 8min 23sec while another Frenchman David Casteu was third.

Pain leads Casteu in the overall standings by 2min 24sec with defending champion Despres, dropping to third 3min 09sec adrift.

Pain, whose best finish in six previous editions has been two ninth places including last year, was not getting ahead of himself with regard to winning the race outright.

Results (fourth stage, 717km/288km timed): Auto: Stage: 1. Nasser Al-Attiyah (QAT/Buggy) 3hr 28min 46sec, 2. Guerlain Chicherit (FRA/Smg) at 36sec, 3. Stephane Peterhansel (FRA/Mini) 1min 17sec, 4. Giniel De Villiers (RSA/Toyota) 4:17, 5. Nani Roma (ESP/Mini) 7:27, 6. Leonid Novitskiy (RUS/Mini) 13:55, 7. Nunzio Coffaro (VEN/Toyota) 20:45, 8. Ronan Chabot (FRA/Smg) 21:07, 9. Pascal Thomasse (FRA/Buggy Md Rallye) 24:37, 10. Carlos Sousa (POR/Great Wall) 26:09.

Overall: 1. Stephane Peterhansel (FRA/Mini) 9hr 04min 29sec, 2. Nasser Al-Attiyah (QAT/Buggy) at 5min 16sec, 3. Giniel De Villiers (RSA/Toyota) 33:22, 4. Leonid Novitskiy (RUS/Mini) 33:48, 5. Nani Roma (ESP/Mini) 39:06, 6. Guerlain Chicherit (FRA/Smg) 42:32, 7. Ronan Chabot (FRA/Smg) 59:30, 8. Bernard Errandonea (AND/Smg) 1hr 04:54, 9. Boris Gadasin (RUS/G-Force Proto) 1hr 22:07, 10. Pascal Thomasse (FRA/Buggy Md Rallye) 1hr 23:56.

Moto: Stage: 1. Joan Barreda Bort (ESP/Husqvarna) 3hr 41:09, 2. Olivier Pain (FRA/Yamaha) at 8:23, 3. David Casteu (FRA/Yamaha) 10:42, 4. Gerard Farres Guell (ESP/Honda) 11:40sec, 5. Helder Rodrigues (POR/Honda) 11:43, 6. Ruben Faria (POR/KTM) 12:18, 7. Javier Pizzolito (ARG/Honda) 12:32, 8. Jordi Viladoms (ESP/Husqvarna) 12:40, 9. Jakub Przygonski (POL/KTM) 14:01, 10. Alain Duclos (FRA/Sherco) 14:11.

Overall: 1. Olivier Pain (FRA/Yamaha) 10hr 10min 38sec, 2. David Casteu (FRA/Yamaha) at 2min 24sec, 3. Cyril Despres (FRA/KTM) 3:09, 4. Joan Barreda Bort (ESP/Husqvarna) 5:38, 5. Jordi Viladoms (ESP/Husqvarna) 7:22, 6. Ruben Faria (POR/KTM) 8:39, 7. Jeremias Israel Esquerre (CHI/Honda) 9:05, 8. Francisco Chaleco Lopez (CHI/KTM) 10:01, 9. Alessandro Botturi (ITA/Husqvarna) 11:44, 10. Jakub Przygonski (POL/KTM) 14:20.—AFP