By alley - Jan 8, 2016, 2:29 PM ET

DAKAR: Loeb loses lead to Peterhansel

Stephane Peterhansel took the lead of the Dakar Rally from Sebastien Loeb on Friday, winning stage six and outpacing the World Rally legend by more than eight minutes.

Loeb carried a 7m48s lead into the Uyuni stage, but after matching Peugeot team-mate Peterhansel through the early waypoints, he started losing time shortly before the halfway mark.

Loeb appeared to be limiting the damage to less than four minutes, which would have kept him in the lead of the rally, but between waypoints 11 and 12, the latter coming shortly before the finish, he lost a further 4m40s to fall 27s behind his Peugeot team-mate in the overall standings.

Peterhansel spent the stage battling with the third Peugeot of Carlos Sainz, beating the Spaniard by 17s at the finish, having enjoyed an advantage of 1m21s at one point.

Sainz retains third overall, now 5m55s behind Peterhansel and nearly 10 minutes clear of 2015 winner Nasser Al-Attiyah in his Mini.

Al-Attiyah, who has made clear that his X-raid Mini is no match for the factory Peugeots, comfortably leads the chase of the French cars, 14 minutes ahead of Giniel de Villiers' Toyota in fifth.

The South African driver has moved up a place at the expense of his teammate Leeroy Poulter, who also slipped behind Mikko Hirvonen to fall to seventh on the leaderboard, having completed Friday's stage 23m37s slower than Peterhansel.

Coverage of the Dakar Rally airs on NBCSN daily at 5:30pm ET:

Date	Coverage	Time (ET)
Mon., January 4	Stage 1 - Rosario to Villa Carlos Paz	5:30 p.m.
Tue., January 5	Stage 2 - Villa Carlos Paz to Termas De Rio Hondo	5:30 p.m.
Wed., January 6	Stage 3 – Termas De Rio Hondo to San Salvador De Jujuy	5:30 p.m.
Thu., January 7	Stage 4 - San Salvador De Jujuy to San Salvador De Jujuy	5:30 p.m.
Fri., January 8	Stage 5 - San Salvador De Jujuy to Uyuni	5:30 p.m.
Sat., January 9	Stage 6 – Uyuni to Uyuni	5:30 p.m.
Sun., January 10	Stage 7 – Uyuni to Salta	6:30 p.m.
Mon., January 11	Rest Day	5:30 p.m.
Tue., January 12	Stage 8 – Salta to Belen	5:30 p.m.
Wed., January 13	Stage 9 – Belen to Belen	5:30 p.m.
Thu., January 14	Stage 10 – Belen to La Rioja	5:30 p.m.
Fri., January 15	Stage 11 – La Rioja to San Juan	5:30 p.m.
Sat., January 16	Stage 12 – San Juan to Villa Carlos Paz	5:30 p.m.
Sun., January 17	Stage 13 – Villa Carlos Paz to Rosario	5 p.m.