Dakar Rally: Coma, Vasilyev, Sonik and Nikolaev top stage 5; Santosh 56th

The 36th edition of the Dakar Rally continued on Thursday with drivers having to tackle fech-fech (powdery sand) on the 458 km special stage between Copiapo and Antofagasta.

The Dakar Rally attested its status as the toughest rally in the world after two stage winners, among others withdrew from the event due to varied reasons. Britain’s Sam Sunderland who won the opening stage on two wheels, crashed heavily on stage four yesterday, injuring his shoulder in the process. Lucas Bonetto is also set to return to his native home in Argentina after mechanical gremlins on his Honda quad resulted in a premature end to his fourth Dakar outing.

In his very first Dakar Rally, India's CS Santosh finished stage five and maintained a 51st place overall ranking astride his KTM Rally Replica

BIKES: COMA CUTS BARREDA'S LEAD WITH STAGE FIVE WIN

Having finished second in the last two stages, Marc Coma registered his first victory of the year on Thursday with a comfortable margin of two minutes and 16 seconds.

Joan Barreda finished second in the 458 km stage and maintains the overall lead in the bikes category which is increasingly turning out to be a two-horse race between the two Spaniards.

Coming in at number three for a second day in a row was home-hero Pablo Quintanilla with a time of 4:40:56. The KTM rider moves up to fourth in the overall standings, 10 minutes behind the final podium spot, currently occupied by Honda’s Paulo Gonçalves.

Despite injuring his shoulder in stage two and subsequently having to resort to pain killers, Bangalore born CS Santosh continued to log strong results on his first ever Dakar outing. The Kini Red Bull team rider finished 56th in the timesheets in stage five, with a time that was 1 hour, and 23 minutes slower than that of four time Dakar Rally winner and today’s stage topper Marc Coma.

Among the other Indian contingent at the prestigious rally raid, the TVS Sherco riders Alain Duclos and Fabien Planet finished ninth and tenth respectively, with the former sitting just outside the top 10 in the overall standings.

Results

Marc Coma (KTM) 4:38:16
Joan Barreda (Honda) +2:16
Pablo Quintanilla (KTM) 2:40
Stefan Svitko (KTM) +3:54
Paulo Gonçalves (Honda) +4:37
Helder Rodrigues (Honda) +6:35
Jeremias Israel (Honda) +7:10
Matthias Walkner (KTM) +7:24
Alain Duclos (TVS Sherco) +9:57
Toby Price (KTM) +10:05

CARS: VASILYEV SPRINGS SURPRISE ON FOUR WHEELS; AL-ATTIYAH STAYS ON TOP IN OVERALL STANDINGS

Russian driver Vladimir Vasilyev took a surprise victory on the stage five of the Dakar Rally, beating debutant Yazeed Alrajhi by a mere 20 seconds on his way to Antofagasta in Chile.

But the centre of attention remained on title protagonists Nasser Al-Attiyah and Giniel De Villiers who unusually finished in fourth and sixth places respectively. Overall, the Qatari driver has a 10 minute gap in his favour going into stage six on Friday.

Results

Vladimir Vasilyev (Mini) 4:19:18
Yazeed Alrajhi (Toyota) +20
Robby Gordon (Gordini) +1:25
Nasser Al-Attiyah (Mini) +3:24
Stéphane Peterhansel (Peugeot) +4:04
Giniel De Villiers (Toyota) +5:44
Krzysztof Holowczyc (Mini) +8:49
Nani Roma (Mini) +10:02
Erik Van Loon (Mini) +11:35
Orlando Terranova (Mini) +11:54

QUADS:SONIK CRUISES TO STAGE WIN

Eager to win his first ever Dakar Rally after finishing runners up at last year’s event, Poland’s Rafal Sonik made his intentions clear with a commanding 10 minute victory in stage five on Thursday from chief title rival Ignacio Casale.

The #251 quads rider now enjoys a 24 minute advantage over the Chilean with today’s fourth place finisher Sergio Lafuente a further two minutes adrift in the overall standings.

Stacking behind the trio are two Argentine drivers Jeremias González Ferioli and Pablo Copetti, making it an all Yamaha top five in the overall standings with eight stages still to go.

Results

Rafal Sonik (Yamaha) 5:47:46
Ignacio Casale (Yamaha) +10:51
Jeremias González Ferioli (Yamaha) +21:41
Sergio Lafuente (Yamaha) +22:31
Victor Manuel Gallegos Lozic (Honda) +30:36
Nelson Sanabria (Yamaha) +35:50
Daniel Domaszewski (Honda) +38:49
Pablo Copetti (Yamaha) +39:39
Gaston Gonzalez (Yamaha) +42:18
Ricardo Vinet (Can-Am) +44:50

TRUCKS: NIKOLAEV LEAPFROGS MARDEEV IN OVERALL STANDINGS

In the trucks category dominated by Kamaz, Eduard Nikolaev emerged on top in stage five, beating his teammate Ayrat Mardeev by nine minutes and 58 seconds.

It was Nikolaev’s third stage victory of the year and one that propels him to the top position in the overall standings.

Behind the leading duo came the MAZ of Siarhei Viazovich, with overall third position holder Ales Loprais coming home in fourth place.

Results

Eduard Nikolaev (Kamaz) 4:34:55
Ayrat Mardeev (Kamaz) +9:58
Siarhei Viazovich (MAZ) +15:46
Ales Loprais (MAN) +16:53
Dmitry Sotnikov (Kamaz) +20:45
Andrei Karginov (Kamaz) +26:48
Marcel Van Vliet (MAN) +35:30
Tomas Vratny (Tatra) +39:32
Gerard De Rooy (Iveco) +40:01
Peter Van Den Bosch (DAF) +41:36