Stage 5 of the Dakar 2020 saw yet another close battle between the three Dakar legends. It was almost a motocross race across the final stages between Carlos Sainz, Nasser Al-Attiyah and Stephane Peterhansel over the Arabian dunes. Of the three, Carlos Sainz started Stage 5 with an overall lead of little over three minutes over Al-Attiyah. After a puncture early into the Stage, this gap was feared to be shortened. But Sainz continued to show his experience and maintained his demeanour throughout the distance of 564 kilometres finishing with a time of 03h52m01s.
Al-Attiyah crossed just 2m56s behind Sainz after suffering two punctures in the final stretch. The Qatari has now positioned himself comfortably on the second position in the overall standings trailing by 5m59s. On the other hand, Stephane Peterhansel also lost precious time due to a puncture on his X-Raid Mini and ended up crossing the line some six minutes behind his teammate. The 13 time Dakar champion is now 17 minutes behind Sainz in the general leaderboard.
Local hero Yazeed Al Rajhi managed to finish fourth, just a minute clear of Stage 2 winner Orlando Terranova. Both these drivers are now in the same positions in the overall standings after Stage 5. Attiya’s teammate Giniel De Villiers is running seventh overall after his P6 finish in Stage 5 and is the last driver who is trailing by less than an hour from the current race leader. Former Formula 1 and Le Man champion Fernando Alonso also had a great run in Stage 5 as he crossed the line at P7. This is the second top-10 finish for the Spaniard but his five-hour loss in Stage 2 still means he is in 18th position, some three hours behind his fellow countryman.
The sixth stage of Dakar 2020 will run from Ha'il to the capital city of Riyadh. It is the second-longest stage this year with 477 kilometres of Special Stage of the total 830 kilometres comprising nothing but sand. After Stage 6, competitors will take a break for a day in Riyadh before beginning the second leg of the 2020 season.
