France's nine-time world rally champion Sebastien Loeb won the second stage of the Dakar Rally in Saudi Arabia on Monday, a 338-kilometre drive from Ha'il to Qaisumah.

The 47-year-old timed 3min 28sec faster than Qatar's three-time Dakar victor Nasser al-Attiyah.

Loeb remains in second spot overall after his 15th career stage win but having reduced the overall gap between himself and Al-Attiyah to just over nine minutes. 

"It was a real match," said Loeb. "At the end it became a World Rally Championship (WRC) special between two WRC drivers.

"I managed to claw back the difference little by little, without doubt because he (Al-Attiyah) had cleared the track.

Continue reading this article on SportsDesk, the sports website of the Times of Malta

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.