“I’ve received news that my father has abandoned this year’s edition of the Dakar”.
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With Sainz down and out Peterhansel raced to the summit of the standings where he holds a one hour lead over defending champ Nasser Al Attiyah.
The Frenchman could yet lose his lead in an appeal hearing. Dutch driver Erik van Loon rolled his Mini out of the race and Yazeed al Rajhi in the third SA Toyota lost a wheel early in the stage. Peterhansel could be penalized six hours or disqualified.
Peterhansel on the other hand kept pushing with Carlos Sainz tailing him alongside his Peugeot comrade Cyril Despres.
Mark Corbett in the first of the South African-built Century Racing CR5 prototype buggies seemed to be getting into his stride in the second half of the race, finishing 11th for the day and moving up another two places to 18th overall, while team-mate Colin Matthews was 27th on the stage and gained two places to 38th in the overall standings. “We took a huge leap forward in the overall”.
What he didn’t know was his rivals were faring even worse.
Giniel de Villiers of South Africa finished sixth in the 245-kilometre stage, which was shortened by 30 kilometres because of a rio swollen by overnight thunderstorms, and climbed to third overall, 72 minutes behind. Not prepared to take more risks, the Qatari finished 14th and more than 50 minutes down in the stage, but managed to rise to second overall.
Today’s stage will run from La Rioja to San Juan over a distance of 431 km, there are two more major stops left till the Dakar Rally 2016 is over. The Slovakian rider finished ahead of Honda’s Kevin Benavides and fellow KTM rider Toby Price.
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The quad category was won by Brian Baragwanath on a Yamaha, followed by Marcos Patronelli in second.
