On January 9, the 2020 Dakar Rally ended the competition for the fifth stage. Carlos Sainz, a Spanish veteran of the MINI team, won the championship of the car group and expanded his advantage in the overall scoreboard; Qatar driver Attia of the Toyota factory team was second behind by 2 minutes and 56 seconds, and the famous French driver Peter Han Searle was third; two-time F1 world champion Alonso took seventh place, and Chinese riders Han Wei/Liao Min took 15th place, leading the Chinese team; Australian star Price of the motorcycle KTM factory team won the stage championship , Chilean driver Quintale was second, and his teammate Andrew Sauter was third; American driver Brabec led the overall score list.
The fifth stage, from Al Ula to Haier, has a total length of 564 kilometers, including 353 kilometers of special stages. Most of this stage is covered by sand, and the track is full of sand dunes throughout the day, with occasional desert grass.
In the car group, Sainz won the second stage championship of this competition, Attia and Peterhansel ranked second and third respectively. In the overall score list, Sainz leads Attia by 5 minutes and 59 seconds, and Peterhansel is third behind by 17 minutes and 3 seconds.
“We won a 3-minute advantage, and it was quite difficult to advance in the final stage,” Sainz said after the race. “I am very happy because the car is running normally. At the beginning of the special stage, my tires were a little deflated, but I made up for lost time afterwards. I was running as hard as I could, but tomorrow we’ll be in the lead and maybe the game will be completely different.”
Peter Hansel said after the game: “Today is a completely different type of stage. For us, today’s stage is not perfect, because we have two flat tires. Once in the beginning stage, once in the sand dunes. I don’t know why, maybe it hit a bush. So we had to stop twice, the second time Carlos passed me, I tried to follow him in the desert and camel grass stages, but he really It’s very fast.”
Two-time F1 world champion Fernando Alonso finished seventh and moved up to 18th overall. Touge is satisfied with the performance of SS5: “In terms of rhythm, this is my best stage so far, whether it is in Morocco or Saudi Arabia, or in Dakar. Lots of glitches and we could be in the top four. We got a good grid spot for tomorrow.”
As for the Chinese Legion, the No. 322 Han Wei/Liao Min car group performed steadily in this stage after taking the ninth place in the race yesterday. Promoted to 15th overall. Hard Tiger Team Jin Jianyun also ran well today and finished in 24th place in the stage, Zhong Lei/Chen Feng of Longxing Tianxia Team finished in 24th place, and No. 363 Ruan Quan team won the 28th place in the class. Among the 6 Chinese car groups currently participating, 4 have entered the top 30.
In the motorcycle group, the defending champion KTM team won the fifth stage championship, the Chilean driver Quintale was second, and his teammate Sauter was third. The leader of the overall score list is the American driver Brabec, Price is 9 minutes and 06 seconds behind the second, and the Argentine driver Benavidez is 11 minutes and 32 seconds behind the third.
As for Chinese drivers, Zacker once again led the Chinese group and finished the race as 53rd in the group, with a total score of 54th; Zhao Hongyi started to work hard at this stage and ranked 64th in the group, with a total score of 79th; Zhang Min ranked 68th in the stage and 53rd overall.
Tomorrow, each car group will compete in the sixth stage. The total length of the stage is 830 kilometers, including 477 kilometers of special stages.
Afterwards, the Dakar Rally will usher in a long-lost rest day in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia.
