Al Attiyah wins stage, Loeb towed over finish line

Safety concerns after heavy rain led to bikers on the day's special stage being halted at the second checkpoint, 243km into the planned 431km route from La Rioja to San Juan, though they eventually completed the day's racing.

The car race was run without pause, however, and gave Qatari driver Al Attiyah his second stage win of the 2016 race - and he picked up five minutes 52 seconds on WRC legend Sebastien Loeb, 7:01 on Mikki Hirvonen and 8:05 on Stephane Peterhansel.

Loeb would have been far closer to Al Attiyah's Mini were it not for a broken gimbal that left him completely stranded just two kilometres from what would prove to be the finishing line. Incredibly, Peugeot team-mate Cyril Despres - whom Loeb had just overtaken - towed him over the finish line.

Peterhansel has a comfortable lead in the overall standings, some 51 minutes 55 seconds clear of Al Attiyah and 1:17.24 ahead of Giniel de Villiers of South Africa.

The bike race stage was halted for a while due to terrible weather, but eventually finished with Antoine Meo claiming the win by a slender 18 seconds from overall leader Toby Price, with Pablo Quintanilla third.

KTM rider Price is set to lead home a 1-2-3 of him and his team-mates: he is 35:23 ahead of Slovakia's Stefan Svitko and 43:46 ahead of Meo.