It was undoubtedly the last-chance special for Sébastien Loeb in Saudi Arabia.
A 346 km loop around Bisha with two-thirds of sand and quite a few dunes in which the pilots could get lost, get bogged down and lose precious minutes.
A solid leader in the general classification since the 1st stage, Nasser al-Attiyah (Toyota) managed to avoid the pitfalls to keep his chances of triumph intact in Jeddah on Friday.
On the eve of the big finish, the Qatari and his French co-driver Mathieu Baumel ensured under pressure, to the chagrin of Loeb and Fabian Lurquin (Prodrive) who could only regain four minutes and 21 seconds despite a day spent at attack and finished in 2nd place behind Carlos Sainz (Audi).
Before the final 164 kilometers to be covered on Friday, the Alsatian is 28'19 behind on first place.