The French Peugeot driver, who had taken victory in Monday's and Tuesday's specials, continued to show impressive form in his first ever Dakar appearance.

Stage 5 fran from Jujuy to Uyuni, as the rally left Argentina to enter Bolivia with a 327-km timed special.

Starting third, Loeb set the pace from the start, posting the fastest time in the first two control points, keeping the gap steady around 1m15s.

In the end, however, Loeb finished just 22 seconds ahead of teammate Carlos Sainz, who was the quickest driver in the final part of the stage.

Loeb completed the stage in 3h32m34s to extend his lead in the standings to 7m48s over teammate Stephane Peterhansel, three minutes off Loeb's time in third.

The result helped Sainz move up to third overall, making it three Peugeots in the top three places.

The former World Rally champion jumped ahead of 2015 Dakar winner Nasser Al-Attiyah, who finished in fourth position and again as the quickest of the X-Raid Mini drivers.

South African Leeroy Poulter completed the top five as the best of the Toyotas, while Mikko Hirvonen had another strong day, finishing in sixth in his X-raid Mini, 7m42s behind Loeb.

Poulter dropped to fifth place in the standings behind the trio of Peugeots and Al-Attiyah, while Giniel de Villiers fell to sixth after coming home seventh on the stage.

American Robby Gordon (Gordini), Dutchman Bernhard ten Brinke (Toyota) and Argentine Orlando Terranova (Mini) rounded out the top 10.

The fourth Peugeot of Cyril Despres lost over an hour to Loeb with electronic problems, dropping the former Dakar bikes champion down to 22nd.

Standings after Stage 5: