Peterhansel wins and cuts Sainz’s lead

Stephane Peterhansel has cut the gap between him and overall leader Carlos Sainz after the Frenchman won the fifth stage of the 2011 edition of the Dakar Rally. Peterhansel is now trailing by a little less than two and a half minutes.

In a stage where dunes were the main course over the 459km between Calama and Iquique, Chile, the BMW driver got the best of both the Volkswagens of Sainz and Nasser Al-Attiyah

Along the stage Peterhansel managed at some point to have a four minutes lead over Al-Attiyah but the Qatari managed to recover benefiting from a puncture from the French. At the end of the stage, the BMW driver finished with an advantage of 1m24s.

"It was a stage with lots of surprises," Peterhansel said. "We started with the bit between our teeth. We managed to overtake Al-Attiyah and Sainz by taking advantage of a navigation error they made. After that, it was our turn to make a mistake and get a flat tyre.

"At the finish, we put in a good time - it could have been better, though. At one point, I had regained four minutes on Carlos. In the end, our performance was okay. The first three places in the general standings are separated by three minutes. That's good.”

As for Carlos Sainz, the Spaniard explained that it was an extremely tough leg for him: “It was difficult in terms of navigation, physically strenuous and rough on the material too. At the beginning of the special stage the roadbook wasn't accurate enough at one particular location. Being the first car out we got lost there and Stephane Peterhansel overtook us.”

In the bikes Portugal’s Paulo Gonçalves won the fifth stage of the 2011 Dakar Rally ahead of Francisco Lopez Contardo, the local favourite. Dutchman Frans Verhoeven was third behind the Chilean.

As for the overall leader, Marc Coma was fourth, ahead of his main rival Cyril Despres. The Spaniard continues in the lead of the Dakar with an advantage of more than 10 minutes over Despres.