Ekström’s superb drive on the 459-kilometre-long seventh stage lifted the Ford driver from fifth place to second overall. He is now less than five minutes behind the multiple Dakar winner Nasser Al-Attiayh, who leads the rally.
“This stage was quite different compared to the previous ones, because it was really fast and we were flat out a lot of the time. I actually wasn’t the biggest fan of it in the morning when we started, but that’s how it went,” Ekström grinned.
“We did our best all the time. We caught a couple of cars that brought a bit of dust, but it didn’t really bother us too much. It’s great to be at the finish again. Now there’s another stage ticked off.”
Third overall in the rally is Ford’s Nani Roma, who trails the Dacia-driven leader Al-Attiayhi by seven minutes. Completing the top five are Toyota’s Henk Lategan and Ford driver Carlos Sainz. Veteran Sainz is just over ten minutes behind the leader.
Sebastien Loeb, who now competes in a Dacia, still looks set to miss out on the first Dakar victory of his career. Loeb is sixth in the standings, more than 15 minutes off the lead.
The Dakar Rally continues on Monday with a 483-kilometre stage. The rally features a total of 13 stages. The competition concludes next Saturday.
Dakar Rally standings after stage 7/13:
| POS. | Driver | Car | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Nasser Al-Attiyah | Dacia | 28:10.15 |
| 2. | Mattias Ekström | Ford | +4.47 |
| 3. | Nani Roma | Ford | +7.15 |
| 4. | Henk Lategan | Toyota | +7.21 |
| 5. | Carlos Sainz | Ford | +10.26 |
| 6. | Sebastien Loeb | Dacia | +15.39 |
| 7. | Mitch Guthrie | Ford | +19.20 |
| 8. | Mathieu Serradori | Century | +22.05 |
