Qatar's Nasser Al-Attiyah claimed second on the sixth stage of the Dakar Rally late on Friday night, while teammate Peter Hansel claimed victory as the Mini duo slightly closed the gap on overall leader Nani Roma.
However, the racing was overshadowed by the deaths of a motorcyclist, who was a father of five, and two journalists.
The sixth stage in the bike category by Alain Duclos, eight years after his first victory in Bamako. The truck race is dominated by Gerard De Rooy, while Peter Versluis recorded the day’ best time.
Peterhansel, six times champion in the motorcycle section and with five titles on four wheels, finished 2min 43sec ahead of 2011 champion Al-Attiyah and 5min 20sec in front of Argentina’s Orlando Terranova on the 400km timed run from Tucuman to Salta.
Spain’s Roma, in another Mini, was sixth on the day and retained the overall lead. The confident show of force by Roma seemed to give him breathing space with a view to a first outright Dakar victory in the car category.
However, the Spaniard witnessed his team-mate ‘Peter’ gain time back on him a little quicker than was expected following the application of an hour’s penalty to Sainz and Al Attiyah, the title holder jumped up one place even before getting in the car.
This news obviously boosted Peterhansel who started his climb back up the standings on the road to Tucuman.
Symbolically, his 63rd special stage victory, equalling the record of Vladimir Chagin, sees him further grasp the status as master of the event.
More importantly, with a view to a possible 12th title, it moves him to within 33 minutes of Roma, who finished the stage six minutes behind his French team-mate.
Third in the race hierarchy on the rest day today, Peterhansel is now behind Argentinean Orlando Terranova.
Meanwhile, French rider Duclos, on a Sherco, beat overall motorcycling leader Marc Coma by 75 seconds, but celebrations were muted after it was revealed that the 9,374km race, which crosses Argentina, Chile and Bolivia, had claimed three more lives. Duclos’s last win on the Dakar came in Bamako in Mali eight years ago when the event was still staged in Africa.
“Today, it was my type of terrain. We’ve got over the worst over the last few days and the rest day has arrived at the right time – it couldn’t be better timed,” he said.
Duclos is third overall after six stages, over an hour behind former three-time champion Coma on a KTM. Joan Barreda, on a Honda, was fourth yesterday but is second in the overall standings, 42mn 17sec behind fellow Spaniard Coma.
