HAIL —Toyota’s Nasser Al-Attiyah remains in the lead of the 2023 Dakar Rally following the seventh stage on Saturday, while Audi endured another day to forget in Saudi Arabia.

Lithuanian Vaidotas Zala and Frenchman Guerlain Chicherit secured two top three finishes for Bahrain Raid Xtreme in the Dakar Rally Saturday as Saudi Arabia’s Yazeed Al Rajhi won the seventh stage from Riyadh to Al Duwadimi.

Sebastien Loeb’s ninth place on the stage alongside Fabian Lurquin in their BRX Prodrive Hunter saw the Frenchman continue his climb back up the overall standings to fifth following his earlier misfortunes.

With the stage for bikes and quads canceled due to weather conditions, Al-Attiyah had to open the road in the 333km special between Riyadh and Al Duwadimi in his Toyota Hilux.

Carrying a lead of more than an hour into the day, and with external assistance prohibited as part of the ‘marathon’ rules that cover both stages 7 and 8, the Qatari driver played it safe in his bid to defend his title, setting a time that provisionally put him 14th in the order.

With his closest rival and Toyota teammate Henk Lategan doing no better than sixth himself and making up little time, Al-Attiyah will take an advantage of 1hr04m00s into the second half of the rally on Sunday.

With several frontrunners finishing out of place, the day’s honors went to Overdrive’s Yazeed Al-Rajhi, who claimed a resounding victory on home turf by nearly nine minutes over Teltonika Racing’s Vaidotoas Zala.

Al-Rajhi and GCK Motorsport’s Guerlain Chicherit dueled for the lead early on in Saturday’s special, both trading the times at the top of the order as they passed through various checkpoints.

Former DTM star Mattias Ekstrom then asserted his authority by jumping the duo at the fifth checkpoint located 196km into the stage, but disaster struck just a few kilometers later when his Audi came to a halt with a mechanical problem.

Teammate Carlos Sainz had to stop on track to provide assistance and neither driver had made it to the finish, in what was another blow to the German manufacturer's second campaign in the world's toughest rally-raid.

Ekstrom was already left as Audi’s only real contender after a punishing sixth stage on Friday that saw Sainz retire following a crash and Stephane Peterhansel completely withdraw from the rally following injuries to his co-driver Edouard Boulanger in a separate incident.

With an Audi comeback now completely out of the question, Toyota continues to hold a 1-2-3-4 lead in the overall standings, with factory duo Al-Attiyah and Lategan followed by Overdrive’s Lucas Moraes and Giniel de Villiers in the final works Hilux.

World Rally legend Loeb has now taken the position of the best non-Toyota in the running following Ekstrom’s troubles, although he trails Al-Attiyah by 1hr54m07s in the general classification in fifth after a troubled run so far in his seventh appearance in Dakar.

Le Mans 24 Hours winner Romain Dumas has moved up to sixth overall in his Rebellion entry, ahead of Brian Baragwanath (Century), Martin Prokop (Benzina), Wei Han (Hanwei) and Lionel Baud (Overdrive).

Chicherit and Zala underlined the power of the Prodrive Hunters over the last few days, despite a spate of punctures and other setbacks. Loeb, Chicherit and Zala will all be looking to deliver more stage victories to Bahrain Raid Xtreme before the finish in Dammam on Jan. 15.

Loeb, runner-up to Al Attiyah in last year’s inaugural World Rally-Raid Championship, overtook the Qatari after 80km Saturday, and will be looking to collect more valuable points in this year’s championship on Sunday’s 346km stage from Al Duwadimi to Riyadh.

The nine-time World Rally Champion completed the stage to say: “Navigation was complicated today as we were second on the road to start. After we passed Nasser it was not easy as we were first into the dunes, and with no motor bike tracks, it was a difficult job.” — Agencies