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Al-Attiyah, Barreda add up more wins in Dakar Rally

Xinhua, January 16, 2015 Adjust font size:

Qatari auto racer Nasser Al- Attiyah (Mini) and Spanish motorcyclist Joan Barreda Bort (Honda) won their respective races Thursday in Day 11 of the 2015 Dakar Rally.

The Qatari royal, a prince of the royal family, defeated Argentina's Orlando Terranova (Mini) by 27 seconds and South Africa's Giniel de Villiers (Toyota) by 39 seconds, with a top time of 1:53:10.

"The Qatari again demonstrated his talent and is slickly heading for victory in Buenos Aires," race organizers said, referring to the rally's final finish line Saturday in Argentina's capital.

With just two more stages to go, Al-Attiyah dominates the general standings in auto racing, with a substantial 29:01 lead over De Villiers and a 1:28:49 lead over Krzysztof Holowczyc (Mini) of Poland.

Barreda's second consecutive win (he won Wednesday's stage as well) and his fourth victory since the rally's start, came from completing the day's track in 3:26:33, ahead of Portugal's Paulo Goncalves (Honda) by 17 seconds and Slovakia's Ivan Jakes (KTM) by 1:35.

Rider Marc Coma (KTM), of Spain, who leads the general standings in motorbikes, came in sixth place, for a total accumulated time so far of 41:43:03.

Trailing him is Goncalves, by 5:12, Australia's Toby Price (KTM) , by 31:43, Chile's Pablo Quintanilla (KTM), by 33:15 and Slovakia 's Stefan Svitko (KTM), by 48:07.

Thursday's route took competitors from the Argentine city of Salta (in the province of the same name) to Termas de Rio Hondo, in Santiago del Estero. Endite