Dakar 2018, Stage 5: Loeb out as Peterhansel extends lead

The nine-time WRC champion, first on the road after recording his 10th Dakar stage win on Tuesday, came to a halt just five kilometres into the 266km timed test between San Juan de Marcona and Arequipa.

He could not resume the race without outside help and lost almost three hours before finally receiving assistance and carrying on with the stage.

However, with co-driver Daniel Elena in pain after sustaining a tailbone injury, Loeb was soon forced to withdraw, with the crew instead heading straight to the Arequipa bivouac for Elena to undergo a medical examination.

With the WRC legend ruled out, his Peugeot teammates Peterhansel and Carlos Sainz were left standing as the two frontrunners in the car class, and it was the former who bolstered his chances with a strong time through Wednesday's test.

The 13-time Dakar champion notched up his first stage win of the 2018 event, beating his nearest rival – Toyota's Bernhard ten Brinke – by almost five minutes.

Sainz, having got stuck in the dunes early on, was 18 minutes down at the finish line, and now trails Peterhansel by over half an hour in the general classification.

Behind the Peugeot pair, ten Brinke has now moved up to third, the Dutchman having outpaced his Dakar-winning Toyota Gazoo Racing teammates.

Nasser Al-Attiyah was 24 minutes off Peterhansel's pace and now trails the Peugeot ace by an hour and 23 minutes in fourth overall, with Giniel de Villiers a further 11 minutes down after having finished the stage in third place.

The bigger threat to Peterhansel's supremacy on the day had come from Yazeed Al-Rajhi of X-raid Mini.

Al-Rajhi, out of contention for overall honours following his early collision with teammate Boris Garafulic, threatened to give X-raid's new buggy its first stage win, but was delayed by half an hour through the final waypoints.

The stage marked the end of Dakar's all-Peru opening leg, as the rally will begin its high-altitude phase and head to Bolivia's capital La Paz tomorrow.

Nikolaev extends lead despite incident

Truck class leader Eduard Nikolaev recorded his third stage win of the 2018 Dakar, despite his Kamaz spending several minutes on its side.

Nikolaev's truck was tipped over on one of the dunes but was soon lifted back onto its wheels, with the lost time not enough to prevent him from ending the day as the pace-setter.

MAZ driver Siarhei Viazovich was runner-up in the stage, taking 6m32s longer, while Ton van Genugten made up the top three.

Van Genugten's De Rooy Iveco teammate Federico Villagra remains Nikolaev's closest rival overall, but now sits almost an hour behind the Kamaz ace.

Standings after Stage 5 (Car class, top 10):

Pos.	Driver / Co-driver	Car	Time/Gap
1	Stephane Peterhansel  Jean-Paul Cottret	Peugeot	13h27m26s
2	Carlos Sainz  Lucas Cruz	Peugeot	+31m16s
3	Bernhard ten Brinke  Michel Perin	Toyota	+1h15m16s
4	Nasser Al-Attiyah  Mathieu Baumel	Toyota	+1h23m21s
5	Giniel de Villiers  Dirk von Zitzewitz	Toyota	+1h34m34s
6	Khalid Al Qassimi  Xavier Panseri	Peugeot	+1h46m48s
7	Eugenio Amos  Sebastien Delaunay	2WD	+2h1m57s
8	Jakub Przygonski  Tom Colsoul	Mini	+2h16m43s
9	Martin Prokop  Jan Tomanek	Ford	+2h17m27s
10	Patrick Sireyjol Francois-Xavier Beguin	Cummins	+2h58m22s