- KTM rider Toby Price led the stage 5
- Completing the podium were Husky riders Pablo and Andrew
- Sherco TVS pilots continue to be in the top 20
The Dakar Rally got even more interesting in Stage 5 as enormous boulders accompanied the usual sandy and gravelly terrain. The fifth day witnessed riders covering a distance of 564km from Al-‘Ula to Ha’il which included of 211km Liaison and 353km of timed section.
After the Honda riders majorly occupying the podium in the previous two stages, the stage 5 saw KTM’s Toby Price outpacing the fellow riders to win the stage. Toby was the fastest from the starting point itself, with his teammate Sam Sunderland pushing hard to keep up with him. However, the latter sustained a nasty crash after 187km into the stage and had to exit due to major back and shoulder injury.
Trailing the winner was the Husqvarna rider Pablo Quintanilla who finished the stage 1m12s behind Toby and clinched the second spot. On the third position was yet another Huski rider Andrew Short who was closely followed by Honda’s stage 3-winner Ricky Brabec. Notably, Ricky continues to spearhead the overall standings owing to his commendable timing in all the stages until now.
Hero MotoSports rider Paulo Goncalves, after breaking into top five in the previous stage, slipped to 10th position on the fifth day. However, Paulo’s timing helped him in ascending in the overall standings to 59th place, up from 83rd in stage 4. Further impressive in the overall standing is Hero’s Sebastian Buhler who is settled at 18th position after finishing the stage 5 on 21st spot. Meanwhile, the Indian rider CS Santosh (Hero) also continued to show a major progress as he was 38th in this stage, advancing from 44th position in stage 4.
Ahead of CS Santosh was yet another Indian rider Harish Noah from Sherco TVS who finished 37th. Harish is actually not a part of the overall standings in Dakar as he is riding in the ‘Dakar Experience’ class. Interestingly, his teammates Lorenzo Santolino, Johnny Aubert and Adrien Metge trailed each other in top 20 and finished the stage 5 on 15th, 16th and 17th positions, respectively.
In stage 6, the riders will be traversing an even longer 830km route with 477km of timed section. They will span the tricky terrain from Ha’il to Riyadh before resting on the seventh day.
