Stage 5: San Juan de Marcona – Arequipa
Another long day greeted competitors during Stage 5 of the Dakar Rally 2018, with a 508km journey to Arequipa and a 266km Special through miles of sand dunes around Tanaka on the rally's last day in Peru.
Scroll down to get the full lowdown on what happened during Stage 5 and watch Red Bull TV’s Dakar Daily show above to catch up on the highlights.
Cars
Overall leader and defending champion, Stéphane Peterhansel, drove his Peugeot to a first stage victory of 2018. Second place went to Toyota's Bernhard ten Brinke, who finished almost five minutes behind Monsieur Dakar, while 2009 winner, South African Giniel de Villiers, finished 12 minutes behind in his Toyota. Carlos Sainz finished in fourth position and now sits in second place overall, although some 31 minutes behind Peterhansel.
There was frustration for Sébastien Loeb, however. After a brilliant run to a stage victory yesterday, the Frenchman crashed out after driving into a sinkhole. The sweeper truck pulled his Peugeot out of the loose sand, but co-driver Daniel Elena suffered an injury in the incident, leaving the duo unable to continue. "Right now we feel like crap," said Loeb. "I'm trying to see how my co-driver's doing: as soon as I go over 30kph, he screams. He's hurting and I don't think we can go on," Loeb added, before later announcing his retirement from the 2018 Dakar Rally.
Selected standings
- 1. Stéphane Peterhansel (Peugeot) 02:51:19
- 2. Bernhard Ten Brinke (Toyota) +00:04:52
- 3. Giniel De Villiers (Toyota) +00:12:47
- 4. Carlos Sainz (Peugeot) +00:18:10
- 5. Nasser Al-Attiyah (Toyota) +00:24:33
- 9. Cyril Despres (Peugeot) +00:37:36
Motorcycles
Joan Barreda won the stage, his second of the race so far, by a huge margin. The Spaniard took the overall race lead after Stage 2, but a navigation error the following day dropped him down the overall standings. The Honda rider finished more than 10 minutes clear of his closest challenger, Austrian Matthias Walkner, today though.
Kevin Benavides rounded out the podium and there was an impressive run by Antoine Méo, but it's Yamaha's Adrian Van Beveren who continues to lead the overall standings.
There was much more to lose than to win on today's stage. In the Dakar every stage is different so it's not easy to maintain a strategy
Selected standings
- 1. Joan Barreda (Honda) 03:19:42
- 2. Matthias Walkner (KTM) +00:10:26
- 3. Kevin Benavides (Honda) +00:12:20
- 4. Antoine Méo (KTM) +00:13:00
- 7. Toby Price (KTM) +00:15:00
- 14. Laia Sanz (KTM) +00:27:29
Quads
There was a new stage winner in the Quad category, as Nicolás Cavigliasso beat overall leader Ignacio Casale across the line. The Chilean was riding conservatively, though, after his main rival, Russian Sergei Kariakin, fell and broke his arm. Casale has dominated so far and must surely be the favourite for victory so long as he can get his machine across the finish-line in one piece.
Selected standings
- Nicolás Cavigliasso (Yamaha) 04:12:47
- Ignacio Casale (Yamaha) +00:01:23
- Alexis Hernández (Yamaha) +00:06:35
Trucks
Another stage win for Eduard Nikolaev and the mighty Kamaz but it very nearly ended in tears after the Russian’s truck tipped on its side. Luckily the team managed to get the truck back upright and, incredibly, Nikolaev took the stage win. Second place went to Belarusian Siarhei Viazovich (Maz), ahead of the Dutch pilot Tom Van Genugten (Iveco). To top it off, Nikolaev extended his lead in the overall standings ahead of Federico Villagra (Iveco).
Selected standings
- E. Nikolaev (Kamaz) 03:37:12
- S. Viazovich (Maz) to 00:06:23
- T. Van Genugten (Iveco) to 00:12:57