Stephane Peterhansel has extended his lead of the 2013 Dakar Rally on yesterday’s fifth stage when closest rival Nasser Al-Attiyah went off road and lost precious time.
Al-Attiyah was doing a good job of closing in on Peterhansel early in the stage, but a navigational mistake, according to the Qatari driver, cost him six minutes.
The X-Raid Mini driver now leads the overall results with a 10-minute advantage over Al-Attiyah.
Nani Roma eventually won Stage five, more than 1 minute quicker than Peterhansel, who came second ahead of a resurgent Robby Gordon.
Carlos Sainz was fifth fastest on his Red Bull Buggy, but remains outside the top 20 overall positions.
In the bikes category, Frenchman Olivier Pain leads from fellow countryman David Casteu, with 1 minute separating both. Cyril Despres is third, a further 5 minutes away from the lead.
Overall results after Stage five:
Pos Driver Team/Car Time/Gap 1. Stephane Peterhansel X-raid Mini 10h55m32s 2. Nasser Al-Attiyah Red Bull Buggy + 9m54s 3. Giniel de Villiers Imperial Toyota + 33m50s 4. Leonid Novitskiy X-raid Mini + 37m35s 5. Nani Roma X-raid Mini + 37m43s 6. Guerlain Chicherit SMG Buggy + 56m34s 7. Ronan Chabot SMG Buggy + 1h10m35s 8. Bernard Errandonea SMG Buggy + 1h18m17s 9. Boris Gadasin G-Force Nissan + 1h31m46s 10. Pascal Thomasse MD Buggy + 1h32m46s