South Africa’s Henk Latigan won the fifth stage of the Dakar Rally in Saudi Arabia on Thursday, while Sebastien Loeb reduced the lead over general classification leader Nasser Al-Attiyah to 35 minutes.
French Loeb, the nine-times world champion, finished second in the 611-kilometre stage near Riyadh, nearly three minutes ahead of his Qatari rival.
Al-Attiyah, the three-time rally champion, finished eighth today with a Toyota.
Latigan, who was eliminated from the competition for the top spot in the general standings, won although he had trouble opening the car door early.
He said: I fixed the door problem and then the tire was punctured, it was the craziest day and I really can’t believe I won, it doesn’t make sense.
Al-Attiyah had no advantage on the road in the absence of motorbikes ahead and faced a steering problem due to the absence of bike lanes in the desert, while Loeb took advantage of this to overtake him in the sand dunes.
In the motorcycle competitions, Italian Danilo Petrucci, who is making his debut in the Dakar, won his first stage victory after imposing a six-minute time penalty on Australian Toby Price for speeding.