Qatar's Nasser Al-Attiyah made large inroads on Volkswagen team-mate Carlos Sainz's overall lead in the Dakar Rally on Wednesday following the 11th stage, the 220-kilometres special from Santiago in Chile.
Al-Attiyah, who was leading when disqualified last year, gained over five minutes on two-time world rally champion Sainz on a day when Frenchman Guerlain Chicherit, driving a BMW, took the stage itself.
Al-Attiyah, who has been crowned Middle East champion five times, was ecstatic even if he had his nervy moments.
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"It's unbelievable," he crowed. "I thought this stage would be easy, but it wasn't. We were in the dust behind Carlos and when we went off the road we hit a big tree.
"We are lucky we did not roll the car. The next three days will be very long," added the 39-year-old, whose rallying idol was Sainz.
Sainz said he had had a very taxing stage.
"We got two slow punctures. I don't know how we got them," he said. "We kept on losing time and we had to stop.
"Mark (Miller another Volkswagen team-mate) passed us and when we got going again we were in his dust. We couldn't do anything. There were bits of trees on the stage and we hit quite a few of them," added Sainz, who only holds a lead of 4min 28sec over Al-Attiyah.
Dakar website: updates, photos, video
Dutchman Frans Verhoeven won the motorcycling section.
Verhoeven edged out American Jonah Street by three seconds while Frenchman Cyril Despres, seventh on the stage over four minutes in arrears, remained comfortably the overall leader with just three stages remaining.
Verhoeven said he was just happy to still be in the race having experienced an unnerving first few days on a BMW bike unfamiliar to him.
"I'm very happy to be here at the end of the stage," he confessed. "I had a lot of difficulties during the first two to three days.
"We're here with a brand new bike. It's a BMW and we didn't really know a lot about it so we sort of jumped into the deep end with it. Now everything is under control."
Despres, whose main pre-race rival for the title Spaniard Marc Coma saw his chances disappear last weekend when he was penalised six hours for illegally changing a tyre, has a lead of 1hr 20min over Norwegian Pal Ullevalseter.
Despres admitted that while he was happy with his day's work, not everything had gone according to plan.
"It was strange at the beginning because after 13km there was a banner stopping us following a track," he said.
"I went straight ahead for about 80 metres before turning around after I saw Marc Coma coming back in the other direction followed by other riders.
"That said, I rather enjoyed myself. It was quick, 220km and went like a flash. Was I being extremely careful? No, when I climb on the bike, I just can't hold myself back. I just want to have fun."
Chile's Francisco Lopez retains third place overall while the big loser of the day in terms of a podium finish was Portugal's Helder Rodrigues, who held on to fourth place but lost six minutes on Ullevalseter.
