Stephane Peterhansel lead a pack of four MINI ALL4 Racing by going quickest on Dakar Rally’s ninth special stage; the Frenchman finished the 422-kilometer special stage in 4 hours 18 minutes to reduce the gap to Nani Roma, who remains in the overall lead, to just 12 minutes.
Qatar’s Nasser Al-Attiyah, who won the eighth stage yesterday, was the second fastest man, crossing the finish line around 2 minutes slower than Peterhansel; Al-Attiyah moved to fourth place overall, relegating Toyota rival Giniel de Villiers to fifth place.
Behind Peterhansel lies Orlando Terranova in third place overall, the Argentinean MINI driver completed the day’s stage fourth quickest, right behind Nani Roma.
The battle for the motorcycles category lead has simmered down with KTM’s Marc Coma extending his lead to 40 minutes after finishing the today’s special stage in first place, almost 2 minutes quicker than second fastest man Joan Barreda Bort who hangs on to second place overall.