The fifth stage of the 46th Dakar Rally saw drivers and teams tackle the Empty Quarter in the southern third of the Arabian Peninsula.
Pablo Quintanilla, who cut his teeth in Chile’s Atacama Desert, and Nasser Al Attiyah, who learned the ropes in the neighboring sands of Qatar, turned up the heat on Wednesday and added another notch to their belts.
Over a distance of 118 km, Al Attiyah outpaced Guerlain Chicherit by 1 minute, 51 seconds to nab his 48th stage win in the ultimate class.
Drivers chose different strategies during the stage. Stéphane Peterhansel and Carlos Sainz played it cool to finish 16th and 17th in the class, a mere 14 seconds apart.
On the flipside, Sébastien Loeb went as far as deliberately missing a waypoint, landing him a 15-minute penalty and widening his gap to the leader, Yazeed Al Rajhi, to a daunting 43 minutes.
Al Attiyah slotted into second place in the overall standings, trailing his former teammate Al Rajhi by nine minutes.
Other Notes
• In the Challenger class, Eryk Goczał conceded over two minutes to today’s Wednesday’s winner, Francisco “Chaleco” López.
• The SSV division saw Xavier de Soultrait claim the stage. Jerome De Sadeleer continues to hold the general ranking lead over Rodrigo Varela.
• Pablo Quintanilla claimed his seventh Dakar stage win in the motorbike class. However, Ross Branch holds the general ranking lead by 1 minute, 14 seconds. Branch is ahead of Nacho Cornejo and Ricky Brabec.