Dakar 2016 - Stage 5: Third stage win for Sebastien Loeb
Team Peugeot Total and Sebastien Loeb continued their domination at 2016 Dakar Rally. Nine-time world rally champion and Dakar rookie scored his third stage win, while his team achieved 1-2-3 victory second day in a row, because Carlos Sainz and Stephane Peterhansel were second and third fastest respectively.
Stage 5 was the first stage in the history of the Dakar in which competitors went to 4600 meters above sea level. Across the mountains they left Argentina and entered Bolivia.
Sebastien Loeb and Nasser Al-Attiyah preparing before racing
Loeb fastest from start to finish
Loeb took the lead at first control point of the stage Jujuy – Uyuni and remained in the lead until the end of the 32okm long timed section. The stage was shortened because of bad weather conditions, but just for 7 kilometres. Drivers behind Loeb were changing positions, so even Robby Gordon was at third place after second control point.
Main followers were Sainz, Peterhansel and Nasser Al-Attiyah with X-Raid’s Mini. The experienced Spaniard finished second, just 22 seconds behind Loeb. Peterhansel was three minutes slower than Loeb, while Al-Attiyah finished seven seconds slower than Peterhansel.
Robby Gordon again reached top 10, this time he finished 8th
Poulter again fastest Toyota driver
South African Leeroy Poulter was once more the fastest Toyota driver. He finished fifth, six minutes behind Loeb. Mikko Hirvonen (Mini) and Giniel de Villiers (Toyota) were sixth and seventh respectively. Robby Gordon made his best stage result and finished eighth, 9m20s behind Loeb. Bernhard Ten Brinke (Toyota) and Orlando Terranova (Mini) completed in the Top 10.
Fourth Peugeot driver Cyril Despres was close to the leaders until control point 7, but after that he encountered some serious troubles with electronics of his Peugeot 2008 DKR and lost more than one hour time.
Nasser Al-Attiyah was fourth fastest on Stage 5 and dropped to fourth in the overall standings
After 5 stages Loeb 7m48s ahead Peterhansel
Sebastien Loeb remained in the overall lead, with the gap increased to 7m48s ahead of Stephane Peterhansel. Good result on Stage 5 promoted Carlos Sainz from fifth to third in the overall classification. He demoted Nasser Al-Attiyah to fourth and Leeroy Poulter to fifth.
Giniel De Villiers held sixth place in the overalls, ahead of Mikko Hirvonen and Bernhard Ten Brinke. Two more Toyota drivers Vladimir Vasilyev and Yazeed Al-Rajhi completed in the top 10 after five stages. Renault Duster Team driver Emiliano Spataro ended up at the excellent eleventh place.
Complete results of Dakar Rally you can find at SnapLap result pages.
Video: Stage 5 summary
