Following up on his third stage win at this year’s event, Loeb looked set to carve more time out of Sainz’s overall advantage as he led the Spaniard by three minutes, and nearest rival Ekstrom by one minute, entering the final 100km of the Al Duwadimi to Ha’il stage.
But on the all-dirt track run to the stage finish, Loeb dropped over 10 minutes to his rivals to undo all his strong work and provide Sainz with more breathing space.
