Jan 15 (Reuters) - Nasser Al-Attiyah remained on course for a sixth career Dakar Rally win in the top car category after last year's runner-up Henk Lategan hit more trouble in the Saudi Arabian desert on Thursday.
The Qatari, driving for the Dacia Sandriders, finished the stage with an eight minute and 40 second lead over closest rival Nani Roma in a factory Ford.
The 13-stage rally ends on Saturday at Yanbu on the kingdom's Red Sea coast.
"Tomorrow, we just need to do the same as today. If we lose
two, three or four minutes it’s no problem. We just need to finish this Dakar in first place," said Al-Attiyah.
Ford's Mattias Ekstrom won Thursday's 346km stage from Bisha to Al Henakiyah, the Swede's third stage win of this year's event.
Al-Attiyah had started the day 12 minutes clear of Lategan, who had slipped back after two nightmare days of mechanical misfortune and navigational errors.
On Tuesday the South African had to drive with no power steering and no windscreen, on Wednesday he got lost and ran out of fuel and on Thursday he broke the bearing on his rear left wheel and dropped to 23rd.
"We saw Lategan stop and we’re sorry for him -- it’s never nice to see someone who is fighting but has a mechanical issue but it’s part of this game," said Roma.
Nine times world rally champion Sebastien Loeb was third overall, but 18 minutes and 37 seconds behind his leading teammate, with Ekstrom fourth.
"I really pushed. I think Nani was at a very high pace as well so it’s going to be hard to take time back from him," commented Loeb.
Ekstrom's teammate and four times Dakar winner Carlos Sainz was third on the stage and fifth overall.
In the motorcycle category, reigning champion Daniel Sanders continued despite a broken collarbone but the Australian has dropped out of contention.
American Ricky Brabec relinquished the lead for strategic reasons, the Honda rider and double champion seeking a better start position for Friday's key stage, with Argentina's Luciano Benavides taking over at the top for KTM.
Benavides is 23 seconds clear but will be at a disadvantage in starting Friday ahead of Brabec.
"There's only really one day more left to push... I just did a little bit of strategy today and hopefully it pays off tomorrow," said Brabec.
American Skyler Howes won the stage ahead of French Honda teammate Adrien Van Beveren. Benavides was fourth and Brabec sixth.
(Reporting by Alan Baldwin in London, editing by Toby Davis)
