Penalty for Al Attiyah yields second Dakar stage victory for Quintero

The ebb and flow of momentum is a key part of what makes the Dakar Rally such a classic of endurance, and another example of this was provided by today's fifth stage. Nasser Al Attiyah appeared to have secured his first stage win of this year's Dakar, which would have marked a record 18 consecutive editions of the rally in which the Qatari had won a stage and moved him within one stage win of the all-time record of 50 held by Stéphane Peterhansel and Ari Vatanen. But the Dacia driver was hit with a 10-minute penalty due to a missing spare wheel at the finishing line. That was enough for him to lose out on the stage victory by just one second to Toyota Gazoo Racing's Seth Quintero (pictured above).

It was the second stage win of the rally for the American, who picked up a win on stage 1 -- ironically after having been credited time back lost when he stopped to help a crashed competitor. Quintero is ninth in the general rankings, one and half hours from the leader -- the consequences of two days in which halts prevented him from featuring better.

“The first day of the marathon stage wasn’t good for us with three punctures. On those rocks, it’s a lottery and we didn’t get lucky," Quintero said. "The first week was pretty good for us, with a victory at the start and two second places, but on the other hand, we also lost 40 minutes on the 48 chrono stage and with the punctures yesterday. All in all, it’s not too bad. Now, for us it will be upwards and onwards.”

In the general rankings, Al Attiyah's penalty wiped most of the gains he made. The Dacia driver, who started the day 35m53s behind Henk Lategan, regained only 53s and remains in fourth behind Yazeed Al Rajhi (10m17s back of Lategan) and Mattias Ekstrom (20m54s back).

America's Corbin Leaverton had high hopes of climbing onto the Dakar podium in the Challenger class on his first participation. Indeed, the Californian enjoyed an excellent beginning to the race, winning the prologue before finishing the first four stages in the top five to hold second overall. However, the fifth proved fatal to his ambitions as he encountered his first mishap of the week with a mechanical problem after 172 km. Nicolas Cavigliasso took advantage of Leaverton’s problems to increase his lead in the general rankings, which has now climbed to 28m34s ahead of his new closest pursuer, Gonçalo Guerreiro. Paul Spierings runs third.

Mechanical issues spoiled the day for another American, too. Sara Price, who fought back from multiple early delays to win yesterday's fourth stage in SSV, was challenging for another today before grinding to a halt 45k short of the finish. That cleared the path for Chaleco Lopez’s to take the stage victory, 20 minutes ahead of the Polaris vehicles driven by Brock Heger and Xavier de Soultrait. The American still leads the general rankings by 1h21m30s ahead of his French teammate.

In the bikes, Luciano Benavides returned to the forefront as Adrien Van Beveren was deprived of victory on the special by a penalty for speeding but climbed into fourth place on the general rankings.

Daniel Sanders’ position at the summit of the bike leaderboard has never been under threat. The Australian will be able to enjoy the rest day, with a lead of 6m52s over Tosha Schareina and 17m38s over Ross Branch. KTM, Honda and Hero make up the provisional podium. Americans Skyler Howes and Ricky Brabec are fourth and fifth overall, 20 and 21 minutes behind respectively.