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Dakar 2017: Stephane Peterhansel pulls away from Sebastien Loeb

Dakar Rally leader Stephane Peterhansel topped the seventh stage of the event, extending his lead over nearest rival Sebastien Loeb by 48 seconds.

Monday's La Paz - Uyuni test shortened after the original route was impossible to follow due to torrential rain in Bolivia.

Reigning Dakar winner Peterhansel, who was narrowly ahead of Loeb heading into the stage, was more than a minute up on the nine-time WRC champion around halfway point - before Loeb recovered some of that margin before reaching the end of the 161km timed segment.

The Peugeot team-mates are now separated by 1m57s at the front of the rally, pulling away from Nani Roma's Toyota and the third Peugeot of Cyril Despres.

Roma and Despres, who were both around five minutes off Peterhansel at the start of the stage, ended the day 11 and 14 minutes adrift respectively.

Completing the top three within the stage was Toyota's Giniel de Villiers, three minutes and a half off Peterhansel, with X-Raid Mini's Mikko Hirvonen slotting in behind and maintaining his overall fifth place.

Peugeot privateer Khalid Al-Qassimi was sixth on the stage, splitting Roma and Despres.

Zdroj: autosport.com