Having battled with Al-Attiyah on Wednesday before a rear wheel issue dropped him out of contention, Lategan was again among the frontrunners in the 421km special near Riyadh – even as he had to drive with the door open early on in the stage.
The 27-year-old grabbed the lead at the second checkpoint after usurping the X-raid Mini of Yasir Seaidan, with the electric Audis of Stephane Peterhansel and Carlos Sainz closely following him in second and third place respectively.
The South African briefly slipped behind Peterhansel at the 159km mark, but soon found himself back in the lead after the 14-time Dakar winner had to make an unscheduled pitstop to hand over his shock absorber to fix Sains’s stricken car.
Capitalising on his rivals’ misfortune, Lategan went on to score a stage win in only his second appearance in Dakar, beating the Prodrive/Bahrain car of Loeb by just under two minutes.
Nine-time WRC champion Loeb slipped to 17th position in the provisional order at one point…
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