Dakar stage five - Price, Loeb and Hernandez share wins

During the fifth stage of the 2016 Dakar rally, the remaining competitors entered Bolivia, with altitude rising up to 4,600m - the highest point in the latest iteration of the fabled cross-country rally. Thursday also marked the second part of the marathon stage, wherein competitors were barred from external assistance.

Bikes: Price wins, Goncalves retains lead despite 12th

KTM’s Toby Price notched his second stage win in the 2016 edition of Dakar rally, as the Austrian manufacturer locked the top four positions in today’s 642 kms stage.

Price set a time of 3:40:38, beating his nearest rival Antoine Meo by two minutes and 32 seconds. Slovakia’s Stefan Svitko was third quickest, while MX3 world champion Matthias Walkner finished a further two minutes and 40 seconds adrift in fourth place.

Joan Barreda, who was stripped of successive stages wins for excessive speeding, rounded off the top five with a time of 4:09:41.

Honda’s Paulo Goncalves was only 12th fastest today, but continues to lead the overall standings, albeit by a smaller margin of 1 minute and 45 seconds. Svitko is second, while Price moves up to third position following today’s win.

Cars: Loeb returns to winning ways

After being trounced by 11-time Dakar winner Stephane Peterhansel yesterday, Sebastien Loeb returned to the top spot today, taking his second stage win to extend his advantage at the top of the overall leaderboard.

Loeb finished 22 seconds ahead of Carlos Sainz, with Peterhansel making it three Peugeot cars in the top three. Last year’s winner Nasser Al Attiyah was again fourth quickest in the leading Mini. Leeroy Poulter was fifth, finishing eighth minutes behind Loeb.

After an off-colour stage four, former WRC driver Mikko Hirvonen was back at the front, finishing sixth in today’s stage, ahead of last year’s runner up Giniel De Villiers.

Quads: Hernandez takes lead as Casale hits engine trouble, Sonik retires

The order in the quads category has completely shaken after erstwhile leader Ignacio Casale’s Yamaha came to a halt after waypoint 8 due to engine gremlins. The Chilean rider managed to complete the stage, but lost close to 80 minutes, plummeting to 14th in the overall standings.

Casale’s problems allowed Peru’s Alexis Hernandez to take the lead, following his second successive stage win. Two-time Dakar winner Alejandro Patronelli now occupies second place in the overall standings, with Sergeri Karyakain rising sharply from eighth to third.

Another big shock came in form of the retirement of 2015 winner Rafal Sonik, who parked his quad after 215 kms of the special.