Frenchman Stephane Peterhansel, who has gained the Dakar Rally a file 14 occasions, crashed on Friday as he gained stage six in his Qatari Nasser Al-Attiyah Toyota.
Peterhansel, 57, nicknamed “Mr Dakar” after eight automobile and 6 bike victories, “had an accident after the 212 km day’s particular,” organizers mentioned.
“His co-pilot, Edouard Boulanger, was injured within the crash and developed again ache. He was evacuated to the hospital in Buraydah for additional examination by the Dakar medical staff.”
Peterhansel advised AFP he did not bear in mind the automobile coming down from the severity of the crash and instructed Boulanger grabbed the steering wheel earlier than their automobile got here to a cease.
Peterhansel’s three-time former Dakar automobile winner, Audi teammate Carlos Sainz, was additionally concerned in an accident on the similar place.
In accordance with the organizers, Sainz and his co-pilot have been unhurt, however after spending hours repairing their Audi in the midst of the desert, their hopes of victory have been dashed.
In Peterhansel’s absence and in gentle of Sainz’s issues, Al-Attiyah made no mistake in securing the third stage win regardless of his personal mechanical issues.
South African Henk Lategan (Toyota) gained the stage with a 8:52 lead, 3 minutes 29 seconds forward of nine-time world rally champion Sebastien Loeb (Prodrive).
Lategan is second within the total standings, 1 hour and 06 minutes behind Al-Attiyah, whereas Brazilian Lucas Moraes (Overdrive) is third and seven minutes behind.
“It was a really tough stage, not a simple one,” mentioned Al-Attiyah. “We pushed actually onerous, however within the final 40km we broke the steering pump, so we did not have a steering wheel.
There was plenty of oil, however now we’ll attempt to repair it, then we’ll go to Riyadh.”
‘Good step’ for Loeb
Loeb is presently in sixth place, 1 hour 57 minutes behind Qatari, however is happy with the stage podium.
“It was a clear stage for us,” the Frenchman mentioned. “We misplaced a while at some intermediate factors, however not an excessive amount of, identical to two or three minutes.
“Once you see what occurred on stage, I believe we did a superb second stage total. It was higher than the earlier ones and I believe we took a superb step ahead within the total standings. It isn’t too dangerous.”
Luciano Benavides gained the sixth stage of the bike division, inserting seven totally different winners within the seven-day race.
The Argentine Husqvarna driver beat teammate Skyler Howes at dwelling by 0.56 seconds, and Purple Bull KTM’s Toby Worth completed third with 2:28.
The consequence noticed Howes enhance his lead on the interim podium towards his direct followers whose positions remained unchanged. Worth is now 3:31 behind, Benavides 7:01 behind.