Motorcyclist Marc Coma took victory on the penultimate stage of the Dakar Rally to virtually seal the bikes title for a third time.
Al-Attiyah finishes third, holds commanding lead heading into final day
Motorcyclist Marc Coma took victory on the penultimate stage of the Dakar Rally to virtually seal the bikes title for a third time.
Coma finished 37 seconds clear of Cyril Despres of France, who now trails his KTM team-mate in the standings by 16 minutes and 36 seconds.
Despite having such a comfortable cushion, the Spaniard - victorious in 2006 and then again in 2009 - is taking nothing for granted.
"There is still a 190km stage left to race tomorrow," Coma said. "Normally there shouldn't be any complications, but we need to race them.
"It's there to be done. It just shows that the route has been designed to ensure that there is suspense up to the end, so we'll just have to wait and see tomorrow."
Al-Attiyah on course
Meanwhile, Nasser Al-Attiyah carefully negotiated the 12th stage in his Volkswagen to remain on course for his first overall victory in the event.
The Qatari ended up coming home in third place on Friday, six minutes and 11 seconds back of reigning champion Carlos Sainz,.
Al-Attiyah has a huge advantage of 48:21 over Giniel de Villiers of South Africa and is 1:21:16 in front of Spaniard Sainz.
"It really was the hardest stage of my life because I had to keep focused and not make any mistakes," he said. "Sometimes I was going fast, sometimes slow, because I needed to keep my concentration and keep the same pace."
Saturday's final stage travels 181km to the city of Baradero. The official presentation will then take place the following day in Buenos Aires, where the rally began back on January 1.
