Attiyah wins stage, Peterhansel crashes out
RIYADH: France’s Stephane Peterhansel, a record 14-time winner of the Dakar Rally, crashed out of the 2023 edition on Friday as Qatari Nasser Al Atiyah won the sixth stage in his Toyota.
The 57-year-old Peterhansel, whose nickname is ‘Mr Dakar’ ater eight car victories and six on a motorbike, “had an accident ater 212km of the day’s special”, organisers said.
“His co-pilot Edouard Boulanger has been injured by the impact leaving him with pain in the back. He has been evacuated by the Dakar medical team to the hospital in Buraydah to undergo further examinations.”
Peterhansel’s Audi team-mate Carlos Sainz, a three-time former Dakar car winner, also suffered an accident at the same place.
Sainz and his co-pilot were unharmed, according to organisers.
In the absence of Peterhansel and in light of Sainz’s problems, Al Atiyah made no mistake in notching up his third stage victory despite mechanical problems of his own.
The defending champion won the stage 3min 29sec ahead of nine-time world rally champion Sebastien Loeb (Prodrive), with South African Henk Lategan (Toyota) 8:52 adrit.
Lategan moves into second in the overall standings, 1hr 06min behind Al Atiyah, with Brazilian Lucas Moraes (Overdrive) in third, a further 7min off the pace.
“It was a very tough stage, not easy,” said Atiyah. “We really pushed a lot but for the last 40km we broke the steering pump, so we didn’t have any steering.
“We had a lot of oil coming out, but we’ll try to repair it now and then we’ll go to Riyadh.”
Loeb and Lurquin in their BRX Prodrive Hunter set the second fastest time on the 358km sixth stage from Ha’il to Riyadh to collect more valuable points in the World Rally-raid Championship (W2RC).
Making it a rewarding day all round for the
Prodrive Hunters, Guerlain Chicherit and Alex Winocq took fourth place on the day, with
Lithuanians Vaidotas Zala and Paulo Fiuza recording the fith best time.
Loeb’s climb into sixth place overall was a tribute to his powers of concentration, and the resilience of the BRX team, following a succession of misfortunes this week.
Three top five finishes on the day was a powerful reminder of the all-round capability of the BRX Prodrive Hunter, which brought back-to-back rally victories for Chicherit in Morocco and Loeb in Andalucia two months ago, to round of the 2022 W2RC.
Despite a flurry of punctures and other setbacks dropping the Hunters down the overall standings, Loeb had a hat-trick of Dakar stage wins in his sights for BRX on Thursday before a hole on the side of a dune tipped his car onto its side.
The nine-time World Rally Champion and Stage 4 winner will now continue his pursuit of W2RC points on Saturday’s 333km stage from Riyadh to Al Duwadimi, with BRX confident of challenging for more stage victories up to the finish in Dammam on Jan.15.
Luciano Benavides won the sixth stage of the motorbike section to make it seven different winners for seven days of racing.
The Argentinian Husqvarna rider beat teammate Skyler Howes home by 0.56sec, with Red Bull KTM’S Toby Price in third, at 2:28.
The result saw Howes increase his lead over his direct pursuers, whose positions have not changed on the provisional podium. Price now trails by 3:31, with Benavides 7:01 behind.