The lead changed hands several times during the 348km special near Saudi Arabia’s capital Riyadh, with Audi’s Carlos Sainz, Overdrive driver Yazeed Al Rajhi, and Al-Attiyah all enjoying stints at the front.
But ultimately it was Prodrive’s third driver Terranova who ended the day quickest of all, scoring his first Dakar stage win since 2015 by just over a minute over Audi rival Mattias Ekstrom.
The Argentine driver had been trailing Al-Attiyah by 28 seconds after the sixth waypoint at 221km, but moved into the lead when the factory Toyota driver mysteriously fell off the pace in the final 127km stretch to the finish line.
Al-Attiyah’s troubles also promoted two-time DTM champion Ekstrom to second, the Swedish driver recording his best-ever stage finish on the electric Audi RS Q e-tron.
Al Rajhi was eventually classified third, just 1m49s down on Terranova, while Brian Baragwanath was a strong fourth for the Century team.
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