Al Attiyah gets Dakar boot

QATAR’S Nasser Al Attiyah was thrown out of the Dakar Rally, which he was leading, last night after missing a control point on the sixth stage, race organisers said.

Al Attiyah had consolidated his Qatar Rally lead last night on the stage but was stripped of his victory and thrown out after he missed a control point.

The BMW driver went into the sixth stage, a shortened 178km run from San Rafael, with a 2min 24sec lead over South African Volkswagen driver Giniel De Villiers.

But he skipped the mandatory time control point. If that happens, De Villiers, who finished 5min 7sec behind the Qatari in second, now becomes the overall race leader.

“We missed a way point. Due to the engine overheating, we couldn’t go through the dunes. The temperature rose to 120 degrees,” explained Al Attiyah, the rally-raid world champion.

De Villiers, said: “It was quite tricky in the beginning in the dunes. In some places it was very soft.”

Meanwhile, Luc Alphand, the 2006 winner, pulled out of the race, delivering another blow to defending champions Mitsubishi. Alphand gave up when co-driver Gilles Picard became ill. Alphand, a former alpine ski champion, was eighth overall at the start of the day, over 40 minutes behind Al-Attiyah. His withdrawal followed that of Mitsubishi teammate Hiroshi Masuoka, the winner in 2002 and 2003, with engine trouble.

Defending champion Cyril Despres clinched the motorcycle section of the stage. France’s Despres, the 2005 winner, finished 2min 9sec ahead of overall leader Marc Coma of Spain with Jordi Viladoms, also of Spain, 5min 15sec back. In the overall standings, Coma leads Jonah Street of the US, by 40min 29sec, with France’s David Fretigne, in third, 47min 30sec back.