Dakar 2020: Toby Price, Carlos Sainz & Dmitry Sotnikov Navigate Their Way To The Top

Jan 10, 2020
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2 min read

Navigation played a key role in one of the hardest stages of the rally so far

What seemed to be one of the shorter stages of the rally, stage 5 proved to be quite a challenge for riders as the navigational hazards did catch them out. Here’s how the bikes, cars and trucks category looks like at the end of the 353km stage.

Bikes
Stage 5 was finally when KTM seized the day with Toby Price really surging through the field to win the stage by over a minute. Crucially, Price was able to claw back into rally leader Ricky Brabec’s lead by nearly 3 minutes, as he is just 9 minutes behind the Honda rider. Even the factory Husqvarna boys seemed to have found their rhythm as Pablo Quintanilla and Andrew Short completed the podium. Sadly, KTM’s Sam Sunderland had to call it quits as the Brit had a nasty fall, cracking five vertebrae and a shoulder blade in the process.

The battle between Honda and KTM is heating up. In the top 8 spots, there are 4 Honda riders and 3 KTM pilots. Quintanilla is the only non Honda or KTM rider in the midst, standing 4th overall.

Cars
Cars category leader Carlos Sainz extends his lead by winning by a margin of nearly 3 minutes over nearest rival on the day as well as in the overall standings, Nasser Al-Attiyah. Sainz’ stage win becomes even more significant as it helps him extend the buffer between him and his teammate, Stephane Peterhansel who is looking to be the first man to win the Dakar rally on three different continents. These three drivers seem to have cleared away from the rest of the field as the next best driver in the overall tally, Toyota’s Yazeed Al Rajhi, is half an hour behind the leader Sainz.

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Trucks
It was yet another 1-2-3 for Kamaz as Dimitry Sotnikov rallied home his teammates Anton Shibalov and Andrey Karginov to lock out the podium spots. It was quite close between Shibalov and Karginov, the duo just separated by 9 seconds. There was a dampener in the Kamaz camp as defending champion Eduardo Nikolaev was forced to retire. Nikolaev did not seem to be as strong as before heading into the Dakar 2020. This was a cruel end to his campaign.

Stage 6 is the final day of the Dakar before the participants get a much needed rest day in the capital city of Riyadh. The stage is going to be quite tough as it features the longest timed section of the rally so far. The competitors have to negotiate 477km with nearly 71 per cent of the stage carried out on sandy terrain.

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