Stephane Peterhansel moved into the 2013 Dakar Rally lead after going quickest on the 2nd stage, in a day which saw early leader Carlos Sainz tumble down the order when he chose to tackle a tricky dune 75 kilometers into the stage, while his rivals opted not to.
Peterhansel now holds a 2m38s lead over Giniel de Villiers in the Imperial Toyota, with Nasser Al-Attiyah dropping to sixth overall after also losing time; the Qatari driver is now five positions ahead of his Red Bull Buggy teammate Sainz.
Emirati driver Abdulla Al Heraiz goes into the third stage 56th overall, with Moroccan rider Harite Gabari 74th overall in the Bikes category. Tarek El Erani meanwhile, who’s the first Egyptian ever to contest Dakar, is out of the top 100 in the cars category.
Here are the top 10 overall results after stage 2:
Pos Driver Team/Car Time/Gap 1. Stephane Peterhansel X-raid Mini 3h00m20s 2. Giniel de Villiers Imperial Toyota + 2m38s 3. Ronan Chabot SMG Buggy + 3m46s 4. Orlando Terranova X-raid BMW + 6m26s 5. Leonid Novitskiy X-raid Mini + 9m33s 6. Nasser Al-Attiyah Red Bull Buggy + 10m25s 7. Lucio Alvarez Overdrive Toyota + 12m27s 8. Krzysztof Holowczyc X-raid Mini + 14m00s 9. Carlos Sousa Great Wall + 15m48s 10. Bernard Errandonea SMG Buggy + 16m15s