Al Attiyah Stays Second in Dakar Rally Standings

Salta , January 12 (QNA) - Qatari driver Nasser Al Attiyah stayed second in the overall standings of the Dakar Rally, despite coming seventh Saturday in the latest stage, held in Chile and Argentina. French driver Stephane Peterhansel came first place in the seventh round of the rally. He finished the race, 218 km long, in one hour and 47 minutes. His compatriot Guerlain Chicherit came second and American Robby Gordon came third. The top five players in the rally so far read as follows: 1) Stephane Peterhansel 16:23:43. 2) Nasser Al-Attiyah + 3:14. 3) Giniel de Villiers + 44:03. 4) Leonid Novitskiy + 48:54. 5) Guerlain Chicherit + 1:17:05. Peterhansel's win was his 61st stage victory. The profile of this mountain stage asked especially difficult questions of the car category, bearing in mind that engines equipped with turbo suffer significant loss of power at altitude. (QNA)