Loeb began the 371km Alula loop stage on the back foot as he briefly stopped at 53km, but fought back to gain five minutes on overall leader Sainz at the 225km checkpoint.
Drama struck the Audi driver as he stopped for around 10 minutes at around 248km, and required assistance from team-mate Mattias Ekstrom and Stephane Peterhansel, which Loeb pounced on to cut the deficit in the overall standings down to 4m13s at the next timed point.
