MOTORSPORT: Price cruises, Peterhansel in box seat

Australian Toby Price is a day closer to an unbelievable motorcycle victory in the Dakar Rally at only his second attempt, while suddenly Stephane Peterhansel is poised for another triumph in the cars – what will be a record 12th win on two and four wheels.

Price rode cautiously on the stage overnight, Australian time, from Belen to La Rioja in Argentina but still leads by more than 23 minutes with three days remaining before the finish at Rosario, Argentina’s third largest city.

The car category was turned on its head on this latest stage, with 'Monsieur Dakar' Peterhansel in a two-wheel-drive Peugeot 2008 DKR emerging an hour clear of last year’s winner, Qatar’s Nasser Al-Attiyah, in a four-wheel-drive X-Raid MINI, with South African Giniel de Villiers now third in a Toyota HiLux.

Spanish great Carlos Sainz’s hopes of repeating his 2010 victory disintegrated the day after he took the lead in the 38th Dakar in a Peugeot.

Sebastien Loeb, the Frenchman making his debut in the marathon after winning nine world rally titles, had lost his chance of a fairytale victory the day before that in another Pug.

The start of stage 10 – the ninth to be run after the first was cancelled – was delayed by thunderstorms and then was crazy, with leading cars barrel-rolling, getting stuck in sand and encountering a myriad of mechanical problems.

Sainz continued to set a cracking pace but soon ran into troubles and eventually stopped with a broken strut between the engine and gearbox.

He eventually made it through the stage 35th and has plunged to 19th outright.

There was no word at the time of writing on Australians Peter Jerie and Dale Moscatt in a Toyota HiLux.

Peterhansel, who has been cleared of a refuelling infringement pending an X-Raid appeal, won the day by five minutes 40 seconds over what has been the fourth Peugeot of fellow Frenchman Cyril Despres, who is now sixth but one hour and 50 minutes off the lead.

Apart from Peterhansel, Al-Attiyah and de Villiers, Depres also has the MINI of Finn Mikko Hirvonen and the Toyota Hilux of South African Leeroy Poulter ahead of him.

So if anything goes seriously amiss for Peterhansel in the remaining three stages Peugeot could see this Dakar go to a MINI or Toyota after having won all but one stage so far.

But the event’s official website called Peterhansel’s drive on the latest stage “a performance out of this world”.

Peterhansel – who has won six Dakars on motorcycles and five in cars, most recently in 2013 – said he “threw caution to the wind” last night after starting the day trailing Sainz by seven minutes.

“We had a terrible start to the special [stage],” Peterhansel said.

“We got lost at 32km and wandered around for at least 15 minutes.

“I blew a ‘fuse’ because I thought I’d lost everything.

“We took risks, pushed very hard, because today was the decisive stage.

“It was a stage with very tricky navigation, off-track sections, drainage channels... everything that makes rally raid hard.

“As usual, this [point of a two-week Dakar] is where you see huge gaps.

“I had a flat tyre and started screaming my head off – I was a bit out of my mind.

“However, when we got going we were fast and we took a huge leap in the overall [standings].”

Al-Attiyah took risks too, wanting to make up ground and keep alive his chances of repeating last year’s victory – but it backfired.

“We did a barrell roll after we hit an embankment 10 km into the special, and it took us a while to put the car back upright,” Al-Attiyah said.

“After that things got tricky because the car was damaged and we had to finish the stage without further problems.

“At the end of the day I’m happy to make it to the finish [of the stage].

“The ceiling and the cooling system were broken and we had to stop several times to check whether everything was in order.

“Despite the adversities, we limited our losses to Giniel [de Villiers] and Mikko [Hirvonen].

“We’re second overall and now we have to try to defend this position.”

Loeb, who stunned Dakar veterans with his pace on debut in the opening week, had “no good news” after another difficult day, although he is back in the top 10 overall.

“I’m not really enjoying hitting everything that gets in my way,” Loeb said.

“It was difficult and tricky in every way.

“You’re always inches away from getting stuck.

“The final part was better, with some dunes.

“We must have lost 10 minutes looking for a waypoint.

“All in all we lost 15-20 minutes today.

“We did a little barrel roll after hitting a dune.

“We did the entire special in degraded mode on loose sand.

“Yet we still came through! Two flat tyres, one barrel roll, getting stuck in the sand, getting lost ...”

In the bikes, Slovakian Stefan Svitko won a stage for the first time in seven Dakar outings.

Riding a KTM similar to that of Toby Price, Svitko is second overall to the Aussie -- 23 minutes and 12 seconds behind.

The cautious Price, third on debut last year, gave up five minutes 47 seconds overnight.

“It was a key stage,” Price said.

“I took it easy because my motorcycle struggled in the heat yesterday (on the loop around Belen which many other riders did not complete in the extreme heat).

“I also focused on navigating.

“I can ride a bit more defensively now – no need to attack.

“I’ve got some margin, but no guarantee. Anything can happen.

“I’ve got to continue working. I must avoid any mistakes or missing waypoints.

“What’s important is to be in good shape and ready to kick it up a notch if necessary.”