INTERNATIONAL: Reigning Dakar Rally champions suffered contrasting fortunes on Wednesday, with French veteran Stephane Peterhansel winning the 10th stage in the car category, while Argentine motorcycle rider Kevin Benavides suffered technical problems and retired from the rally.

The stage victory was a first on this year's event for 'Mr Dakar' Peterhansel, a 14-time winner on two wheels and four, and now driving an electric hybrid Audi, who dropped out of the contention for the title in Saudi Arabia last week.

Qatar's Nasser Al Attiyah retained a comfortable lead with two stages remaining before the finish in Jeddah on Friday (January 14), although closest rival Sebastien Loeb cut the gap to 32 minutes and 40 seconds.

Loeb, a nine-time world rally champion driving for the Bahrain Raid Xtreme team, was fifth on the 375km stage from Wadi Ad Dawasir to Bisha with Peterhansel leading Audi team mate Carlos Sainz.

Three-time Dakar winner Al Attiyah was seventh, five minutes and 50 seconds off the pace, and also collected a five-minute penalty for a breach of seat belt regulations.

Benavides ended the defense of his title when his KTM motorcycle broke down 133km into the stage and was unable to fix it.

He won last year riding a Honda to become the first South American to win the event - now in its 44th edition - on a motorcycle.

The 33-year-old had been fifth overall, some 10 minutes behind his Austrian teammate and overnight leader Matthias Walkner, who ended the day fourth with France's Adrien Van Beveren taking over at the top.

Britain's Sam Sunderland was second overall, nearly six minutes adrift, in a stage won by Australian Toby Price on a KTM.

^{PHOTO: HIGHLIGHTS OF STAGE 10 OF THE DAKAR RALLY INCLUDING DEFENDING MOTORCYCLE CHAMPION KEVIN BENAVIDES DROPPING OUT}