Sunderland, who led almost all of the first week of the Saudi Arabian event, had lost the advantage as the rally resumed after rest day on Sunday, as he lost almost 26 minutes to the leaders on what he described as a “casino” stage in terms of navigation.
However, the Briton struck back on Monday’s 395km Al Dawadimi-Wadi Ad Dawasir test, leading at every single waypoint to win the stage by two minutes, 53 seconds and vault himself from fourth to first in the general classification.
Overnight leader Adrien van Beveren by contrast endured a tougher day as the second rider on the road, but the Yamaha man limited his time loss to Sunderland to 10m21s, finishing ninth.
It means the Frenchman has slipped to third overall, 4m43s behind Sunderland and just under a minute behind KTM’s Matthias Walkner, who held on to second with the third-best stage time.
Just a further 47 seconds behind van Beveren in fourth is Pablo Quintanilla, who ended up as Sunderland’s nearest challenger on a strong…
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