adminSALTA, Argentina – Defending champion Stephane Peterhansel drove to victory on Stage 6 of the 2014 Dakar Rally on Friday but the race was overshadowed by the deaths of a motorcyclist, who was a father of five, and two journalists. Peterhansel, six times a champion in the motorcycle section and with five titles on four wheels, finished 2min43 ahead of Qatar’s 2011 champion Nasser al-Attiyah and 5min20sec in front of Argentina’s Orlando Terranova on the 400km timed run from Tucuman to Salta. Spain’s Nani Roma, in another Mini, was sixth on the day and retained the overall lead.
South Africa’s Giniel de Villiers (Toyota Hilux) is still with the leaders – he was fourth on the day with a time of 2hr49min,04- 2min43 behind Peterhansel – and is running fourth overall with a total time of 22hr52min22 which is 40.54sec behind overall leader Nani Roma (Mini). De Villiers said afterwards: “We had a clean day – no problems. I think the guys at the back will come a little bit quicker because there’s a lot of cleaning and the road is very slippery on the top but I’m very happy with the day.
I must thank the guys back in the bivouac doing all the hard work. We finally managed to get on top of the small issues we’ve been having and the car ran perfectly today. There’s still a long way to go – the first week has been really tough and I’m very happy that we made the rest day. It’s not over by a long way. We really have to stay concentrated. There are some very long stages in Chile and the dunes by Copiapo are famous for their difficulty.- AFP.
Online Reporter