Sainz was barely threatened in the 346km special stage of the SS11 stage, and after overtaking Alvarez of the Toyota Overdrive team at the third time point, the Spanish veteran kept the lead until the finish, and finally won by 2 minutes and 4 seconds.
It was Sainz's second stage victory in Dakar and the fourth stage victory for the Audi RS Q e-tron. It is worth noting that audi since Saturday's rest day, the German car manufacturer seems to have solved the problem of mechanical failure of the car, winning three of the five stages in the second half, and each driver has tasted the taste of the stage champion.
Peter Hansel lost about 6 minutes early on, and although he caught up in the second half, he failed to finish in the top three and finished only sixth, with Audi's Extrøm standing quite stable throughout the stage, finishing third in the stage.
BRX Team's WRC star Loeb approached Sainz at one point in the final stages of the day's race, originally finishing second, but after the race was fined five minutes for speeding, the stage ranking fell to eighth. The leading Atiya, escorted by teammate Ratgan, finished the race in seventh place, while another teammate, Gide Villiers, finished fifth.
After finishing the eleventh stage, Qatari Atiyah's lead reached 33 minutes and 19 seconds, Dakar usually does not set difficulties in the last stage, not to mention the tactical escort of teammates, Atiya is basically close to his fourth Dakar championship trophy.
With Loeb sent off, Overdrive Team Alvarez moved up from third to second place on the stage and BRX Team Roma finished fourth on the stage. Another teammate, Terranova, finished ninth. In the overall standings, the pattern of the top three is basically determined, namely Qatari driver Atiyah, French star Loeb and Saudi driver Alaki.
For the Chinese drivers, the Han Wei/Mali car group finished 21st in the stage and 37th overall result; Zhang Guoyu/Pan Hongyu ranked 35th in the stage and 49th overall; and Tian Po/Du Xuanyi finished 39th in the stage and 31st overall.
KTM team Kevin Benavides won the stage championship, GASGAS team Sunderland second, HERO team Rodriguez third. Sunderland leads the overall table, with Quintananilla trailing 6:52 second and Walkner trailing 7:15 third. All three drivers remain hopeful of winning the championship.
Chinese driver Zakir was 44th in the 44th stage and 41st overall, Zhao Hongyi was 71st in the stage and 79th in the total, and Zhang Min was 77th in the 77th stage and 61st in the overall result.
Tomorrow (14 January) the Dakar Rally will see its final stage, starting from Bissar-castel and ending in Jeddah, with a total of 676 km of stages and only 163 km of special stages.
Top 15 overall results in the automotive category
Top 12 in the automotive division