The driver Nasser Al-Attiyah (Toyota), from Qatar, won this Thursday the fifth of the 14 stages of the cars of the 45th edition of the Dakar all-terrain rally and increased his advantage in the general classification.
The Toyota driver completed the 373 kilometers of the special with a 1.57-minute advantage over the Spanish Carlos Sainz (Audi), who was second, and 3.44 minutes over the Frenchman Stéphane Peterhansel (Audi), who was third.
The Portuguese Paulo Fíuza, navigator of the Lithuanian Vaidotas Zala (Prodrive), finished in 10th position, 20.32 minutes behind the winner.
With these results, Al-Attiyah now has a 22.36-minute advantage over Peterhansel, who moved up to second place after exchanging with the Saudi Yazeed Al-Rajhi (Toyota), who is third, 27.01 behind the Qatari driver. Fiúza is 116th, after the physical problems of his pilot in the previous stages.
Among the light vehicles (SSV), Hélder Rodrigues (Can-Am) was seventh in the T3 class, of prototypes, 22.38 minutes behind the winner, the North American Seth Quintero (BFG).
“This Dakar has not been easy at all. in yesterday’s stage [quarta-feira] we ran out of gas and had to wait for a T5 [camião], which only arrived after three hours. We ended up coming directly to the bivouac [acampamento]. It’s been a tough day for us and today we started a long way behind, from 150th position, which made it look like a tricky ride. However, we managed to set a good pace until, 30 kilometers after refueling, we had to control the pace again because we had fuel consumption problems. It has been a difficult day because we have had to overtake many competitors, but we have tried to do our best. With 40 kilometers to go we broke a belt, but other than that we did everything well, ”he explained.
João Ré, sailing for Saudi Saleh Alsaif (Black Horse) was ninth, at 29.34, while Ricardo Mas (Yamaha) again had mechanical problems and lost 3:05.16 hours, finishing in 29th.
“Around 168km I hit camel grass and broke my lower control arm. I had to wait for the quick assist truck to change the part. I lost more than 2:30 hours and had to do the last 100 kilometers of sand dunes. I confess that I am disappointed with all this ‘suitcase’ that has accompanied us in this race… but we are not going to give up”, promised the driver from Leiria, former national all-terrain champion.
João Ferreira (Yamaha) also had problems and was 31st, at 4:43.20.
Overall, João Ré is sixth, 3:18.06 behind the leader, the Belgian Guillaume de Mevius (Grally), while Ricardo Mas is 18th, and 8:44.13. Hélder Rodrigues is 27 and João Ferreira 29.
In T4, for standard-derived vehicles, Fausto Mota, who runs with a Spanish license plate and is driven by the Brazilian driver Cristiano Batista (Can-Am), finished second in the stage, just five seconds behind the winner, the Brazilian Rodrigo Oliveira (Can -Am).Am). The Portuguese lost the victory due to a 50-second penalty.
Pedro Bianchi Prata, co-driver of Brazilian Bruno Oliveira (Can-Am) was 15th, at 30:41, followed by David Megre, navigator of Spanish Ricardo Suarez (Ramilo), 16th. Paulo Oliveira (Can-Am) was 34th.
Fausto Mota is eighth overall, 1:35.28 hours behind the leader, Rodrigo Oliveira. Pedro Bianchi Prata is 10th, with 1:39.31 hours. Paulo Oliveira is 28 and David Megre 34.
On Friday the sixth of the 14 stages of the race will be held, which connects Hail and Al Duwadimi, with 467 kilometers of timed special.
Source: TSF
