Gordon moves into sixth after Stage 6 of Dakar Rally

Dakar Rally leader Nasser Al Attiyah was disqualified for skipping part of the sixth stage he won on Thursday.

Rally officials said Al Attiyah missed more than three hidden check points during a difficult route through the Andes foothills between San Rafael and Mendoza.

Gordon

Al Attiyah, winner of the first and third stages, was leading the sixth stage by more than 20 minutes until his BMW engine overheated. The Qatar driver decided to avoid a swath of hot dunes to reduce the risk of more mechanical problems. He won the stage but race stewards decided to review his course.

With Al Attiyah out, Giniel de Villiers was declared the winner of his second successive stage in 2 hours, 12 minutes, 33 seconds, and moved to the overall lead. A flooded river ford meant the route was cut in half from 245 miles to 111.

Sprint Cup driver Robby Gordon finished Stage 6 in 2 hours, 44 minutes, ninth-best. He is now sixth overall, 1 hour, 11 minutes behind de Villiers.

Al-Attiyah, who retook the lead on Wednesday, said he intentionally missed a waypoint in order to avoid the dunes; his car's engine was overheating.

Organizers reduced the day's timed section after impassable river ford forced them to shorten the route. The timed stage from San Rafael to Mendoza originally was scheduled to be 395 kilometers.

After 14 stages covering the 9,574-kilometer (5,950-mile) circuit, the race will finish on Jan. 18 in Buenos Aires.

Friday's route is a 419-kilometer drive from Mendoza to Valparaiso.

The Dakar Rally is being broadcast on Versus, with daily updates on RobbyGordon.com.

• Meanwhile there was criticism of the organizers over the death of French motorcyclist Pascal Terry, with authorities saying he could have been saved if he had been discovered earlier.

Terry, 49, had gone missing during the second stage between Santa Rosa and Puerto Madryn in the province of Chubut on Sunday. His body was found in the early hours of Wednesday.

Police official Julio Acosta told the Telam news agency: "He could have been saved if he had been rescued in time and if we had been alerted sufficiently in advance to begin our search."

Acosta said Terry "died of a pulmonary oedema, which caused a respiratory and cardiac arrest."

Etienne Lavigne, director of the Dakar rally, said that an internal malfunction at the Amaury Sports Organization, which organizes the event, was responsible for the search beginning too late.

French daily Liberation quoted Lavigne as saying, "There was a problem in the chain of communication." Liberation says that as a result 12 hours were lost before the search for Terry began.

In addition, because they believed, erroneously, that Terry had been seen in Neuquen, the finish of the fourth stage, the search was interrupted for several hours.

Local police and justice officials have opened an investigation into Terry's death.

Related:
• Gordon jumps to seventh after fifth stage at Dakar

Wire services contributed to this report.