Jan 16 (Reuters) - Qatar's Nasser Al-Attiyah looked set for a sixth Dakar Rally title after the Dacia driver won Friday's penultimate 12th stage in the Saudi Arabian desert and extended his lead to 15 minutes with 105km remaining.
The stage win was the 50th of the 55-year-old's career, equalling a record in the car category held by Finnish rally great Ari Vatanen and France's 14-times winner 'Mr Dakar' Stephane Peterhansel.
The rally ends on Saturday outside the Red Sea port of Yanbu after nearly 8,000km of competition over the space of two weeks.
In the motorcycle category, Honda's American Ricky Brabec returned to the top of the standings after taking a strategic decision on Thursday to drop back and get a better start position for the last big stage.
"To win this stage and to have a good lead now is really amazing," said Al-Attiyah after the 409km drive over rocks and sand left him on the verge of victory.
"You can lose everything today but we did a good job. One day to go, but we need to be smart and really focused."
Ford's Nani Roma remained his closest rival but the Spaniard's overnight deficit of eight minutes ballooned after he broke his car's front axle and lost a wheel.
French teammate Romain Dumas came to Roma's rescue at the stage finish, providing the parts for the second-placed driver to continue on the link road and reach the overnight bivouac on time and without penalty.
Ford's Mattias Ekstrom was third overall, 23 minutes and 21 seconds off the lead, with Dacia's nine times world rally champion Sebastien Loeb a close fourth and ahead of Ford's Carlos Sainz.
American Mitch Guthrie was second on the stage for Ford, with Australian Toby Price third in a Toyota.
Brabec's gamble paid off on two wheels and the two-times winner took the stage to lead Argentine rider Luciano Benavides by three minutes and 20 seconds -- a tough gap to make up in the limited mileage remaining.
Honda's Spaniard Tosha Schareina is third overall.
"We’ve got one more day to go. 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,” said Brabec.
Reigning champion Daniel Sanders slipped further out of contention to fifth as the Australian battled on with a shoulder injury suffered on Wednesday.
“Everything was worse than yesterday. The terrain was a lot more demanding with a lot of loose rocks and riverbeds. It was torture. It’s so hard riding with one arm already," he said.
"I had one crash and tried not to land on my left side because it’s already so damaged.
"In the end, I just had to make it to the finishing line and I did. I don’t care about the time or anything like that, I’m just happy to be here."
(Reporting by Alan Baldwin in London, editing by Toby Davis)
