SANTIAGO, Chile: Stephane Peterhansel boosted his lead in the Dakar Rally to 10 minutes after a fifth stage won by teammate Nani Roma on Wednesday.
Peterhansel’s Mini finished second to Roma’s on the relatively short 172-kilometer stage on the Peru side of the border with Chile. After enduring sand dunes since the race started on Saturday, drivers sprinted through rocky sections, riverbeds and canyons.
The motorbikes navigated a different 136-kilometer route from Arequipa toward the Pacific coast, and Olivier Pain became the first rider to hold on to the overall lead. Only six minutes separate the leading trio, all of them Frenchmen.
The favored Minis of the X-raid team dominated the cars’ stage, with three in the top five.
Roma beat Peterhansel home by 1 minute, 23 seconds, and Leonid Novitskiy was fifth. Robby Gordon, whose Hummer was on its roof on Tuesday, finished third and the consistent Giniel de Villiers raced his Toyota to fourth.
Nasser Al-Attiyah, who won the previous two stages, was six minutes behind in seventh in his buggy after a slight navigation error but remained second overall to Peterhansel. De Villiers was third overall but 33:50 off the lead, and only four minutes ahead of Novitskiy and Roma.
“It was tough and essential to find the right course,” Peterhansel said. “Mind you, I had a good hare to follow with Nasser up ahead who was making good tracks.” On the bikes’ stage, Pain and David Casteu opened the trail on their Yamahas and expertly held their lead. Casteu edged out Pain by a minute for his third career stage victory, followed two minutes later by Juan Pedrero of Spain.
“Winning at the start of the rally when all the riders are still in it, it’s really great,” Casteu said. “At the end of the Dakar, it can be argued that other riders relax and manage their position. When you win like that with all these riders who’ve got the bit between their teeth, it’s good.” The order was swapped in the overall, with Pain leading Casteu and defending champion Cyril Despres, who was fifth on the stage, third just over six minutes back.
“I wanted to avoid making a mistake so that people wouldn’t say, ‘He got caught out because he got too big for his boots,’” Pain said. “It was a nice stage to ride and I’m still leader. That makes it two days running now.” Any chance of winning the title virtually ended for Joan Barreda Bort, who won two previous stages. He was held up by a fuel pump problem 100 kilometers in and dropped three hours off the lead.
The long sixth stage on Thursday will be the first in Chile, with riders heading into the Atacama Desert.
Two killed in accident
Meanwhile, two people were killed and seven others were injured in a head-on collision between a Dakar Rally support vehicle and a taxi near Peru’s border with Chile, race organizers said yesterday.
The incident happened at 9:30 p.m. local time on Wednesday (0330 GMT Thursday) 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) from the frontier, a statement on the race website dakar.com said.
One of two taxis hit the support vehicle head-on while a second cab overturned as its driver tried to avoid the collision.
Two people in the first taxi, including the driver, were killed and seven people, four of them Peruvian, were injured. Three of the injured were in the rally support vehicle. All were taken to hospital for treatment.
An investigation has been launched with the Peruvian authorities, the statement added.
The collision came after the fifth stage of the race from Arequipa in Peru to Arica in Chile. The 8,400km event is being staged in South America with 459 vehicles.
Some 59 people, including 20 spectators, have lost their lives in the race over the years but organizers have been keen to play down the dangers.
This year, around 150 security staff as well as 60 doctors and surgeons are on hand, backed up by five helicopters and 10 medical vehicles, in case of emergencies.
