The 2019 Dakar Rally stage 7 took place today. The stage was a loop around the San Juan de Marcona area and featured a 331 km timed section. Proceedings kicked off over an hour late thanks to fog that made it near impossible to see, or for the helicopters that keep an eye on proceedings to take off.

Speeding up                                                                                                                                        

There was just one man to beat all day on Dakar Rally stage 7, Stephane Peterhansel. With 13 overall victories to his name, he knows better than any other than you have to keep pushing because one never knows what can happen late in the race.

The Mini driver claimed the stage honours and reclaimed second place from Sebastien Loeb. Loeb suffered an electrical fault early on and lost over 30 minutes, and now lies 4th overall. Nani Roma took second place on the day 4 min 33 behind Peterhansel. Carlos Sainz had a good run to finished third overall. Giniel de Villiers finished sixth on the stage.

Click here to learn all about the new Toyota Supra that was launched at the Detroit Motor Show.

Running slow

Race leader Al-Attiyah was left to clear the road after Loeb stopped. The Qatari dropped further and further off the pace and ended up losing 12 minutes to Peterhansel in the overall classification; he would finish fourth on the road. The Toyota driver still retains a 29-minute overall lead.

Check out the official Dakar YouTube channel for a video review of the day.

1 Nasser Al-Attiyah/Mathieu Baumel Toyota 25 hr 13 min 30 sec

2 Stephane Peterhansel/David Castera Mini +29 min 16 sec

3 Nani Roma/Alex Haro Bravo Mini +37 min 59 sec

4 Sebastien Loeb/Daniel Elena Peugeot +54 min 12 sec

5 Cyril Despres/Jean-Paul Cottret Mini Buggy +1 hr 20 min 01 sec