South Africa's de Villiers wins stage five of the Dakar Rally

Bad day for Spanish drivers. The fifth day of the Dakar Rally that runs through Saudi Arabia has reduced the aspirations of victory by the Madrid Carlos Sainz, in cars; and the Castellon Joan Barreda, in motorbikes. The 456-kilometre special between Riyadh and Al-Qaisumah ended with victories for the South African Giniel de Villiers in cars and the Argentinean Kevin Benavides in motorbikes.

In the car category, Carlos Sainz and his teammate Lucas Cruz relived the problems of the third stage and suffered a navigation error at the start of the race that put them half an hour off the lead. From then on, the reigning champion focused his efforts on closing the gap and made a great comeback, especially in the final part of the course, to finish in eighth position, leaving himself only 15 minutes behind de Villiers.

Sainz has managed to cushion the damage in reference, moreover, to his great rivals: the Gaul Stephane Peterhansel and the Qatari Nasser Al-Attiyah. Both finished the stage in third and fourth position respectively, while ahead of Brian Baragwanath, the Century driver, the South African signed the victory.

Peterhansel maintains the lead in the general classification with a 6:11 advantage over Al-Attiyah, while Sainz is third at 48:13 from the Frenchman. On the other hand, the Spanish Nani Roma occupies the sixth position at one hour and 25 minutes from the Gallic.

In the motorbike category, luck did not smile on the Spaniards either. Barreda finished almost 20 minutes behind the new leader and in the general standings he is ninth at 14:02 from the first place in a race in which Benavides swept the board.

After taking two second places in this edition of the Dakar, the Argentinean rider finished the job and scored his first victory. This also allows him to occupy the first place in the general standings after displacing the Frenchman Xavier de Soultrait, who he left almost eight minutes behind.

Benavides now leads the classification with 2:31 over the Gallic and 3:42 over the Chilean José Ignacio Cornejo. Ahead of Barreda is now Lorenzo Santolino, the first Spaniard in the classification who is in sixth position at 9:31 from the leader.

This Friday, the sixth stage of the Dakar will take place, which will mark the halfway point of the competition before the rest day, and will propose a special 448-kilometre stage between the towns of Al-Qaisumah and Ha'il. Everyone is looking forward to this marathon stage, which will start after the first rest day and which will surely be decisive for the aspirations of the Spanish drivers, who must close the gap.