Carlos Sainz has win his first stage in this 2016 Dakar and his first with Peugeot. The Spanish takes his seventh stage victory, which is the sixth in a row for French brand. Loeb today was second and now is back to the lead of the race.
Today was the last stage before a very reach rest day tomorrow. Today’s stage left Bolivia and has returned to Argentina soil. An 817 kilometers stage, which Ten Brinke (Toyota) didn’t start after see how his car got fired.
But it is what it is and what you hope from Dakar, you never know if you can finish or not a stage or the whole rally. And that’s a very good known for “Mr. Dakar”, Stéphane Peterhansel who today launched the stage after took his 34th stage win in a Dakar.
Today’s stage was all about Peugeot once again. Sébastien Loeb led the field all time in front of team mates, Peterhansel and Carlos Sainz who follow him very close. But at the end of the stage the rain didn’t help the Frenchman’s who saw the Spaniard taking the win.
Actually, it wasn’t a good stage ending for Peterhansel who lost a lot of time, finishing in a final fourth position that let Nasser Al-Attiyah (Mini) finish on third today. Hirvonen (Mini) was fifth, followed by Despres (Peugeot), De Villiers (Toyota), Alrajhi (Toyota), Poulter (Toyota) and “Nani” Roma (Mini) who close the top10.
“Mr. Dakar” also lost the leadership of the rally with Loeb who now is 2min 22sec in front of Peterhansel and 4min 50sec from Sainz.