The Japan Times - Brabec and Al Attiyah on course for victory at Dakar Rally

Brabec, who started the day in second place behind Luciano Benavides, led home to take his second special of this rally and his 13th in total.

He finished the route from Al Henakiyah to Yanbu 3min 43sec ahead of Benavides (KTM) and will hold a lead of 3min 20sec when he opens the way on Saturday's 13th and final 105km special.

"We've got one more day to go," said Brabec who is looking for his third Dakar title.

"Tomorrow is supposed to be 'easy', they say, and if I open and do a good job, I should get about a minute-and-a-half of bonus time, so we'll see what happens."

Al Attiyah, meanwhile, drove a superb special in his Dacia to put himself 15min 02sec ahead of Nani Roma going into the final stage.

The Qatari finished the stage 1min 04sec ahead of Mitch Guthrie, to bring his tally of stage wins on the Dakar to 50.

That equals the record in the car category chalked up previously by Ari Vatanen and Stephane Peterhansel.

If the top two in the cars appear locked in -- providing there are no disasters on Saturday -- the battle is still on to complete the podium where third-placed Mattias Ekstrom is only 29sec ahead of Sebastien Loeb.

H.Nakamura--JT