Carlos Sainz benefited from race leader Yazeed Al-Rajhi’s title-ending crash and Stephane Peterhansel breaking down in the desert, to take the provisional lead after the first part of the Dakar Rally sixth stage on Thursday.
The stage is an unprecedented two-day marathon around Shubaytah – a 780km loop in the kingdom’s vast Empty Quarter with more than 600km of specials for motorcycles and nearly 550km for cars.
On Thursday, it was the veteran Spaniard Sainz who showed his mettle and was leading when the day’s action stopped at 4pm local time with competitors spending the night at the nearest of seven bivouacs dotted around the dunes.
The 61-year-old three-time Dakar winner leads the general standings by more than a quarter of an hour on his Audi teammate Matthias Ekstrom of Sweden.
The Prodrive drivers are trailing with Qatar’s defending champion Nasser Al-Attiyah losing time and sitting some 22 minutes off the pace.
Source: Supersport
In other news – Tiwa Savage files police complaint against Davido
Nigerian artist Tiwa Savage has reportedly filed a police complaint against fellow Nigerian afrobeat artist Davido for allegedly making threats against her.
According to BBC Tiwa and Davido’s alleged beef comes after Tiwa posted a photo of herself with the mother of one of Davido’s children on her Instagram story. Read more
