MOTORSPORT: A MINI win, Loeb out, Price on top in Dakar

MINI has finally broken Peugeot’s stranglehold on the stages of this year’s Dakar Rally as Sebastien Loeb crashed out overnight, while Australian Toby Price is leading the motorcycle division again.

Loeb rolled his two-wheel drive Peugeot 2008 DKR several times 20km from the finish of the latest stage, 393km between Salta and Belen in Argentina.

Having already lost the lead earlier in the stage when he first got stuck in a sand dune, Loeb quickly dropped to eighth in the overall classifications and the nine- time world rally champion’s stunning Dakar debut looked to be over.

Last year’s victor, Nasser Al-Attiyah of Qatar in a four-wheel drive X-Raid MINI, ended Peugeot’s dominance of this year’s Dakar with a narrow win on the leg to Belen.

Stephane 'Monsieur Dakar' Peterhansel, the 11-time winner of the event in Africa and South America on two and four wheels, regained the overall lead from another Peugeot teammate, Spaniard Carlos Sainz, with Al-Attiyah up to third now, within 15 minutes of the lead with five days remaining in the two-week marathon.

Sainz was just 12 seconds slower than Al-Attiyah on the latest stage and Peterhansel only another 19 seconds slower, despite reporting overheating problems in the sand dunes and camel grass.

Peugeot had won all six previous stages completed.

Peterhansel said Loeb had crashed “into a big hole” at 120kmh.

“I don’t know how many rolls, but he was OK – he was out of the car,” Peterhansel said.

Meanwhile, Aussie Price delivered what the live feed on the event’s website described as a “sledgehammer blow” to win the two-wheel section overnight and head the field again as he did after the first completed stage last week.

Price has now won four of the seven bike stages on his factory KTM and is a huge chance not only to repeat last year’s podium on his debut but to take overall honours at Rosario, Argentina’s third biggest city, at the finish, early Sunday, Australian time.

He leads Honda man Paulo Goncalves by two minutes and five seconds after the Portuguese rider lost time with a crash on the latest stage.

Price took the stage victory by five minutes and 17 seconds.

Navigation has now become a big factor on the rally and an official report said that Price “did not disappoint, with a performance that was faultless”.

“Toby Price took the bull by the horns and demonstrated that he firmly intends to become the successor of Marc Coma for KTM in Rosario,” it said.

Spaniard Coma won the Dakar five times before retiring after last year’s victory and has since become the event’s sporting director.

“Setting off at pace, trailing Goncalves by 53 seconds at the first control point, he (Price) then masterfully completed the first passage through the dunes on the rally,” the report said.

“Irreproachable from a navigational point of view, the Australian also took advantage of his rival’s problems.

“Indeed, Goncalves crashed and damaged his navigation instruments, which was the worst-case scenario on a navigationally-demanding stage.

“As a result, Price climbs to the top of the general standings this evening.”

Price said the stage was “never perfect” for him.

“Still made a couple of little errors in there,” he said.

“Got a little bit lucky ... [but] it’s been a good day. I’m stoked.

“With Paulo, me and him are battling. It’s pretty much day for day. We take time off each other and I think it’s going to come down to minutes and seconds by the end of the week.

“He’s a real strong competitor and he’s got a lot more navigation skills than what I do, but we’re trying our best and keeping ourselves in front as much as we can.

“It is a little bit stressful, but once you throw your leg over the bike and you get going, we just have to make sure we make all the right calls and be confident with what we decide to do.

“We did that today and we’ve come out pretty good.

“For sure this is another important part of the Dakar now. Having the marathon stage (two days on which only tyres can be changed and machinery washed at the next overnight stop), we’ve got to make sure on the first day that we don’t do anything silly and break the bike or damage the bike in any way because it makes the second day a whole lot worse.

“We’ve just got to make sure we get through and look after ourselves those two days.”

While cars leader Peterhansel lamented the loss of one of the Peugeots with Loeb’s crash, it was a better day for another Frenchman, Cyril Depres, in the fourth ‘Pug’.

Depres was fourth on the latest stage, ahead of three MINIs – driven by Finn Mikko Hirvonen, Spaniard Nani Roma and Argentinean Orlando Terranova.

The Toyota HiLuxes are not in the same league as the Peugeots and MINIs but ran stronger early in this stage, but the best of them were only eighth and ninth at the end of the day’s competition.

There was no word at time of writing of Australians Peter Jerie and Dale Moscatt in the Hilux in which they stood 33rd overall before the previous day’s rest.

American Robby Gordon ground to a halt overnight in his two-wheel drive Gordini buggy.