2018 Dakar Rally: Stage 12 win for Al-Attiyah, no changes on the top

Nasser Al-Attiyah (Toyota Gazoo Racing South Africa) scored his third stage victory at 2018 Dakar Rally at more than 500km long stage between Chilecito and San Juan.

The overall leader Carlos Sainz (Team Peugeot Total) still controls the race, finishing just ninth today but he is almost 45 minutes in front of his teammate Stephane Peterhansel with two more stages to go.

Carlos Sainz is overall leader with two more stages to go

Al-Attiyah needed 5 hours 49min57sec for 522 kilometers of the special stage between Chilecito and San Juan, 2min03sec less then Stephane Peterhansel. Giniel de Villiers (Toyota) was the third fastest today.

X-Raid’s Orlando Terranova had the best stage at this year’s edition of Dakar Rally, finishing fourth-fastest in the #307 Mini John Cooper Works Rally. Bernhard ten Brinke (Toyota) rounded today’s top 5.

Stephane Peterhansel is chasing Carlos Sainz

In the overall standings after twelve stages, all top 10 positions remained unchanged. Carlos Sainz is leading with a 44min41sec advantage over Stephane Peterhansel. Third-placed Nasser Al-Attiyah is one hour 05min55sec behind Sainz.

Further positions are occupied by Bernhard Ten Brinke, Giniel de Villiers, Jakub Przygonski (X-Raid Orlen Mini), Khalid Al-Qassimi (PH Sport Peugeot), Martin Prokop (MP Sport Ford), Peter van Merksteijn (Overdrive Toyota) and Sebastian Halpern (South Racing Toyota).

Beautiful scenery at stage 12

Check the full results after Stage 12

The penultimate stage of the rally, scheduled for Friday, January 19, between San Juan and Cordoba, features 424 kilometers of timed section. It would be the last proper stage which eventually can change the overall results because Saturday’s stage is just 120 km long,

Photos: Florent Gooden/DPPI, Marcelo Maragni/Red Bull Content Pool,