IANS/DPA

San Juan (Argentina), Jan 14: Qatar's Nasser al-Attiyah Wednesday added excitement to the final days of the 32nd Dakar rally, as he reduced the lead of Spain's Carlos Sainz.

Race leader Sainz had a mechanical problem halfway through the 11th stage of the rally, and ended the day 7:19 minutes behind the stage winner, BMW's French driver Guerlain Chicherit.

While the Spaniard continues to top the overall table, his Volkswagen team-mate al-Attiyah more than halved his advantage, cutting it by 5:38 minutes. Sainz now leads the Qatari by just 4:28 minutes.

"Today, I took five minutes from him and now the gap is only four minutes. The next three days will be very long! Yes, absolutely, Carlos is nervous. But me, I want to win the Dakar," al-Attiyah said.

Also with VW, US driver Mark Miller is third overall, 23:50 minutes behind Sainz.

In the motorcycle section of the prestigious rally, Dutchman Frans Verhoeven won the stage, while France's Cyril Despres retained the overall lead. Norway's Pal Anders Ullevalseter reduced Despres' lead slightly, but the Frenchman - who won the 2005 and 2007 editions on the rally - remains comfortable atop the table, over 1.2 hours ahead of his immediate follower.

Organizers said Wednesday that the life Italian biker Luca Manca, who suffered a serious accident during the Dakar rally last week, was no longer at risk, and had been briefly woken up from his induced coma. His head and internal injuries were believed to be under control, race authorities said, and he was expected to be definitively out of the coma by the end of the week.

The 11th stage, over 220 km across the Andes from Chilean capital Santiago to the Argentine city of San Juan, took place in the shadow of the Americas' highest peak, the Aconcagua.

The 14-stage, 9,000-km event through Argentina and Chile, considered the toughest motor vehicle race in the world, is slated to conclude Jan 17 in Buenos Aires.