The French driver, behind the wheel of a Peugeot, took the fifth stage between Jujuy in Argentina and Uyuni in Bolivia to extend his lead in the overall standings.
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Peugeot’s fourth driver Cyril Despres lost power during the stage and would finish 1 hour 15 minutes down, “Everything was going well until kilometre 140, when we felt a loss in power that got progressively worse”, said Despres. “And so we finished the stage about an hour and a quarter behind the leaders, whereas we were just within a few minutes of them before the problem”. Following that error, Peterhansel now leads Sainz by 2m9s, while third-placed Al-Attiyah is 14m43s adrift.
After a stunning drive in Uyuni where he called on all his vast experience to deal with the tricky terrain, Peterhansel timed 5:01.07 to cross the line 17 seconds clear of Sainz.
The wily Peterhansel has been driving within himself and is content that he is in a good position for the remaining week’s stages to the finish at Rosario, Argentina’s third-biggest city, on January 16.
Not only did the 11 times champion from France win stage six – a 542 km loop around Uyuni in Bolivia – but he also did enough to take the overall race lead from Peugeot teammate and Dakar debutant Sebastien Loeb. Al-Attiyah was 3min 7sec behind Loeb on the stage but is 14min 16sec off the pace overall and admitted the Peugeots were looking nearly unbeatable.
Loeb was 2 minutes, 22 seconds ahead of Peterhansel, and 4:50 in front of Sainz. Fastest over the stage’s first section was Nasser Al-Attiyah (Mini/Michelin) who was clearly intent on taking the battle to Peugeot’s trio.
“I saw nobody, just sometimes I saw dust”, he added. The Australian beat Paulo Goncalves by 1min 12sec but despite losing out the Portuguese Honda rider retained the overall lead. It’s nice to get support when you’re racing so far from home. “I had to stay on top of the game”, said Price.
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“I’m happy with my performance, but you must never drop your guard – that’s the best way to make mistakes”.
