Buenos Aires  - Qatari driver Nasser al-Attiyah recaptured the lead of the Dakar Rally Wednesday, after coming in fourth in a stage marked by tragedy after French motorcycle competitor Pascal Terry was found dead.

South African Giniel de Villiers won the stage, a 506-kilometre mountainous stretch between the Argentine cities of Neuquen and San Rafael.

De Villiers, driving a Volkswagen Touareg, beat the German Dieter Depping by 2 minutes and 18 seconds in the fifth stage of the famous race.

The BMW X3 driver al-Attiyah - who won both the opening stage and Monday's third leg and came fourth in Wednesday's stage with a delay of 5:23 minutes in relation to the winner - now leads the overall table. He has a lead of 2:24 minutes over second-placed De Villiers.

"This was undoubtedly the toughest stage so far. There was quite a bit off-road and it was hard to find the right way. And because of the altitude, we also had to keep an eye on the engine temperature," De Villiers was quoted as saying on the Dakar Rally website.

The previous leader, the Spaniard Carlos Sainz, was only ninth in the stage 15:42 minutes behind De Villiers. He now lies third in the overall race, 6:33 minutes behind al-Attiyah.

"I drove 200 kilometres without power steering. Driving in these conditions is pretty hard. And when the dunes started, it was even harder and I ended up rolling over," Sainz said.

In the motorcycle race, KTM US rider Jonah Street made the most of the problems encountered by overall leader Marc Coma - who suffered a punctured tyre - to carry the stage. Dutchman Frans Verhoeven came second, 5:53 minutes later.

The KTM Spaniard Coma, who lost 15:45 minutes in the stage and came ninth, continued to lead the overall table, with a lead of 27:12 minutes over Street.

"I worked a lot to get this; I had been dreaming of a stage victory for so long. Its really special," Street said.

Coma, the winner of three stages in the competition, was glad to have got through a rough day.

"There were quite a lot of sand dunes and rocks today and a lot of kilometres too. I fell at km 81 and then I drove slow the rest of the day. What mattered for me was to get to the stage finish with no other trouble and I made it," he said.

The body of 49-year-old Pascal Terry was found earlier Wednesday about 15 metres from his bike, some 300 metres from the route used during Sunday's second stage.

The Yamaha rider had gone missing during the stage between Santa Rosa and Puerto Madryn in the province of Chubut.

The sixth stage is set to be held Thursday, over a 395-kilometres stretch between San Rafael and Mendoza. dpa