AL ULA, Saudia Arabia — Nasser Al-Attiyah took a small chunk out of 13-time champion Stéphane Peterhansel’s now 17-minute lead in the final days of the Dakar Rally. Ahead of Thursday’s penultimate stage, Al-Attiyah kept his hopes alive by taking 49 seconds off Peterhansel’s overall lead on the 10th stage, a 342kilometre timed special stage. Al-Attiyah warned his rival: “The key to this Dakar will be tomorrow. And Sainz said: “The first part of the stage had very tricky navigation and we lost quite a bit of time. Ahead of the marathon stage, he said: “We don’t know exactly what to expect tomorrow but we know it will be hard.”.

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