Al-Attiyah closes in on third Dakar title as Loeb takes stage

Qatar's Nasser Al-Attiyah closed in on a third Dakar Rally title on Sunday despite nine-time world rally champion Sebastien Loeb taking the race's sixth stage honours.

Al-Attiyah, the Dakar champion in 2011 and 2015, has an overall lead of 37min 43sec after taking his factory Toyota to second place on Sunday's run from Arequipa to San Juan de Marcona.

Loeb, behind the wheel of a private entry Peugeot, claimed his third stage win of this year's Dakar and 13th of his career after reaching the finish more than two minutes ahead of the 48-year-old Qatari.

French driver Loeb also snatched second place in the overall standings from 13-time champion Stephane Peterhansel who finished almost 12 minutes behind al-Attiyah and the best part of 19 minutes back from Loeb.

In the race for the motorcycling title, Chile's Pablo Quintanilla on a Husqvarna claimed the stage and took the overall lead.

Quintanilla finished 1min 52sec ahead of Kevin Benavides of Argentina on a Honda and 4min 21sec in front of Austria's KTM rider Matthias Walkner, the 2018 champion.

Quintanilla now leads previous overall leader Ricky Brabec of the United States by 4min 38sec and Australia's Toby Price who is 5min 17sec off the pace.

"It was a hard stage. I attacked from the beginning, caught Kevin and overtook him," said Quintanilla.

The seventh stage on Monday takes place in and around San Juan de Marcona.

STAGE 6 RESULTS

CARS
1. S. LOEB PEUGEOT 3:39:21
2. N. AL-ATTIYAH TOYOTA +2:17
3. C. SAINZ MINI +6:56
4. C. DESPRES MINI +13:05
5. N. ROMA MINI +13:08
8. G. DE VILLIERS (RSA) TOYOTA +23:29

MOTORBIKES
1. P. QUINTANILLA HUSQVARNA 3:50:47
2. K. BENAVIDES HONDA +1:52
3. M. WALKNER KTM +4:21
4. T. PRICE KTM +4:48
5. A. VAN BEVEREN YAMAHA +5:31

OVERALL STANDINGS

CARS
1. N. AL-ATTIYAH TOYOTA 21:01:31
2. S. LOEB PEUGEOT +37:43
3. S. PETERHANSEL MINI +41:14
4. N. ROMA MINI +45:24
5. C. DESPRES MINI +1:19:09
18. G. DE VILLIERS (RSA) TOYOTA +6:48:00

MOTORBIKES
1. P. QUINTANILLA HUSQVARNA 20:45:13
2. R. BRABEC HONDA +4:38
3. T. PRICE KTM +5:17
4. K. BENAVIDES HONDA +8:01
5. A. VAN BEVEREN YAMAHA +9:15