Dakar Rally: Duel of the giants 🎥

The highlights of Thursday's Stage 5 from Toyota's point of view show the speed of the aces at the beginning, how Peterhansel in the Mini Buggy stuck to the heels of Al-Attiyah, who had started in front of him, and what his team-mate Lategan's car looked like after a rollover.

The Dakar Rally, held for the second time in Saudi Arabia, lives up to its promise. The three giants Stéphane Peterhansel (X-Raid Mini Buggy), Nasser Al-Attiyah (Toyota Hilux) and Carlos Sainz (X-Raid Mini Buggy), who have all won the world's toughest cross-country rally several times, fought a great battle for the best times of the day and the overall lead in the first week from Sunday to Friday.

Taking the lead with speed and consistency
Sainz initially set the pace on the first leg. On the other hand, Al-Attiyah, the winner of the prologue and the first to take to the track, had some orientation problems. As a result, the Qatari lost around twelve minutes.

The son of the desert subsequently won the next three stages of the day, gradually reducing the gap to the leading Peterhansel. Although the Frenchman was not the absolute fastest in the diesel buggy on any stage, he was always close to the front-runners at the finish.

Peterhansel or Al-Attiyah?
Peterhansel and Al-Attiyah are only six minutes apart after six of the twelve stages. Apart from punctures or navigating the sometimes seemingly endless desert, neither of the top favorites experienced any major problems.

Nor with the technology of their completely different vehicles: the leader drives a rear-wheel drive buggy, the challenger a V8 pickup with four-wheel drive.

Sainz in lurking position
Carlos Sainz can only secretly hope that one of the two opponents ahead of him will stumble in the second week. Just as the Spaniard did on the third stage, when last year's winner, navigated by compatriot Lucas Cruz, only found a waypoint after a long period of wandering and thus lost around half an hour of time.

After his second best time of the day on January 8, he is still almost 41 minutes behind his team-mate Peterhansel. After the rest day on Saturday, the rally continues on Sunday with stage 7.

Out for Loeb
The 2021 Dakar is practically over for Sébastien Loeb. After his newly developed Prodrive Hunter had been running relatively smoothly until then, he suffered a suspension failure on stage 6 today, Friday.

As he had to wait for the service truck to carry out the repairs, around ten hours were lost before he crossed the finish line. As a result, the record-breaking world champion and co-driver Daniel Elena dropped to 44th position.

For Sébastien Loeb, the hunt for a top classification in the new Prodrive Hunter came to an end after six stages.Swiss want to see the finish line
The Swiss team Alexandre Pesci/Dr. Stephan Kühni complained of mechanical problems with the Rebellion RD Buggy. This dropped them from 42nd to 52nd place in the car classification.

By Friday's stage, they had improved to 45th position again. Having set themselves the target of a top-40 finish, this seemed a long way off, but it is now quite conceivable.

The adventurous Mike Horn - born in South Africa and a long-time resident of Switzerland - sitting in the Peugeot 3008 DKR and navigating French racing pro Cyril Desprès, advanced to 19th place in the first week of the rally before losing a few positions again. They can enjoy the rest day - also benefiting from retirements (Loeb and others) - as a good seventh.

Daily summaries on free television
The 2021 Dakar Rally ends on Friday, January 15, in Jeddah. The TV channel Eurosport 1 will broadcast an up-to-date report every evening from around 10.35 pm to 11 pm. Fascinating and spectacular action scenes, which also capture some drama, are still guaranteed.

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