Sebastian Loeb leads the Dakar Rally at the midway point by more than two minutes from French countryman Stephane Peterhansel.
Carlos Sainz won the seventh stage on Saturday, 38 seconds ahead of Loeb.
Loeb was 2 minutes, 22 seconds ahead of Peterhansel and 4:50 in front of Sainz.
In the motorcycle division, Paulo Goncalves of Portugal was the leader, 3:12 ahead of Toby Price of Australia and 9:24 clear of Stefan Svitko of Slovakia.
Antoine Meo of France won the stage.
The Dakar Rally, running in Argentina and Bolivia, resumes on Monday and ends next Saturday in Rosario, Argentina.
