The Qatari ace's smooth day contrasted to Daniel Sanders - the overnight leader in the motorcycling category who imploded with a series of navigating errors.
SAUDI ARABIA - Defending car champion Nasser Al-Attiyah extended his overall lead in the Dakar Rally by winning Thursday's fifth stage in his Toyota.
Al-Attiyah, though, is sitting pretty in the car race with a 22min 36sec lead over Audi's 'Mr Dakar' Stephane Peterhansel, the Frenchman who has a record 14 wins in the race with six on a motorbike and eight in a car."It was a very tough stage," said Al-Attiyah. However, the Frenchman, a world rally champion for a record nine times, lost another 20 minutes on Thursday after rolling his car."We landed and hit a big bit of camel grass and ended up with the car on its side."There was no problem with the car, so that was quite good."Sanders was not the only leader to get lost as Wednesday's stage winner Joan Barreda also lost his bearings in the motorbike race.
His Honda team-mate Jose Ignacio Cornejo -- who had selflessly stopped to aid an injured rival on Wednesday -- finished second, just 13sec off the pace.
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