| GEO Sports | | Al-Attiyah wins seventh stage of Dakar Rally | Updated at: 1704 PST, Saturday, January 09, 2010
 DAKAR: Nasser Al-Attiyah of Volkswagen won the seventh stage of the Dakar Rally cars section on Friday, a 600 km special from Iquique to Antofagasta.
Al-Attiyah saw off early race pace-setter Stephane Peterhansel of BMW by 3min 29sec for his sixth career stage win and finished 4min 21sec ahead of Spanish teammate Carlos Sainz, who still leads the overall standings 11min 03sec ahead of Al_Attiyah.
Mark Miller of the United States, in another Volkswagen, was fourth 11min 40sec behind Al-Attiyah, with French BMW driver Guarlain Chicherit fifth 15 min 33sec off the pace.
In the motorcycling category, the day's honours went to Frenchman Cyril Despres, who leads the way overall after the longest special stage of the event.
Despres beat out Spanish KTM rival Marc Coma by 29sec in finishing in 6hr 34min 14sec while French Yamaha racer David Fretigne was third 5min off the pace.
Overall, Despres has a healthy 1:06.50 lead over Coma with Portugal's Helder Rodrigues of Yamaha 13min further back.
Saturday is a rest day before the 9,000km adventure resumes Sunday with a 472km special stage from Antofagasta to Copiapo. |  |
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