Al Attiyah tops on day 5 of 2023 Dakar
Henk Lategan and Brett Cummings moved into sixth, followed in eighth by another South African team, Giniel de Villiers and Dennis Murphy.
Nasser Al Attiyah now finds himself in the overall lead after day 5 of the 2023 Dakar, and will have to maintain the pace and the car to stay ahead of the rest of the pack.
On bikes, the Honda duo Adrien van Beveren and Jose Cornejo came from behind to take a bike 1-2 in a test of navigation through the soft Arabian desert sand and camel grass of a second loop around Ha’il.
Cars: Al Attiyah in control
Laia Sanz and Maurizio Gerini’s Century emerged unscathed, but their Dakar is over.
Al Attiyah controlled the race from the front, with those behind swapping places regularly.
Brian Baragwanath ran into trouble when they fell into a hole and had to wait for assistance late in the stage and dropped to 20th, as Century teammates Mathieu Serradori and Loic Minaudier’s Century came home 11th.
South African Ryan Bland was navigating German Daniel Schröder’s PS Laser Red-Lined Nissan in 34th and Gerhard Schutte guiding Thomas Bell in 48th at the time of writing. All four SA-built Red-Lined bakkies were still running strong.
Overall, Al Attiyah opened his car lead up to 22 minutes after day 5, now over Peterhansel, who passed Al Rajhi for second. Sainz is third from Lategan, Toyota rookie Luca Moraes and De Villiers. Serradori is back up to 12th, but Baragwanath slipped to 20th.
Bikes: Hondas come from behind
Wednesday’s top three bikes struggled to open the road as Jose Cornejo’s Honda led KTM trio Toby Price, Matthias Walkner and Mason Klein early on.
Price then lost time at mid distance and Van Beveren went on to take the day. Michael Docherty ended 28th, retaining his rookie position of second overall. Ross Branch’s woeful Dakar continued as he lost another hour. SA’s Malle Moto riders Stuart Gregory was still riding in 80th position and Iron Lady Kirsten Landman was 83rd, while Stevan Wilken sat 95th.
Seth Quinteiro led the T3 prototypes, with SA crews Eben Basson and Abertus Pienaar running sixth, and Geoff Minnitt and Gerhard Snyman’s HBE Can Am ninth.
Today’s stage 6 will be fast at the start, with dunes to follow, and it will be the second longest Dakar 2023 stage, at 467km.
Source: MotorsportMedia
