Dakar Rally 2020: 5th stage

The 5th stage of the Dakar Rally 2020 leads from Al-Ula over 564 km to Ha'il, 353 km of which are special stages alone. Once again, an impressive panorama of huge deserts and mighty mountains awaits the drivers, through which they will have to navigate as skillfully and quickly as possible.

Fernando Alonso seems to have slowly warmed up to the Dakar Rally. Once again, the ex-Formula 1 world champion delivers a strong drive and maneuvers his way into 7th place on the stage. Saudi Yazeed al Rajhi on number 309 has meanwhile established himself in the top field. He wants to show the old hands in the field who want to decide the victory of the rally among themselves. With today's 4th place in the race, he secures 4th place overall and thus keeps his chances for victory alive. After his stage win yesterday, 13-time Dakar winner Stéphane Peterhansel once again had to deal with punctures and tire changes. Peterhansel described today's stage in the interview as exhausting like a motocross race, finally delivering a close head-to-head race over the dunes with the other two leading teams during the stage and being shaken up mightily. Nasser Al-Attiyah is as tough as a bull terrier, he just won't give in and therefore it's no surprise that he repeatedly took second place on today's stage. But the strongest performance today was shown by Carlos Sainz. He starts 6 minutes after Peterhansel and 3 minutes after Al-Attiyah, but after 400 km he has caught up with both of them. What a dominance, impressive.

"We decided to attack, we lost time in one place, but we were able to make up the lost time in another place and catch up with our rivals."

Sainz explained in the interview.

Overall ranking

Rang	Fahrerteam	Nr.	Zeit
1	Carlos Sainz / Lucas Cruz	305	19:04:13 hrs.
2	Nasser Al-Attiyah / Matthieu Baumel	300	19:10:12 hrs.
2	Stéphane Peterhansel / Paulo Fiuza	302	19:22:06 hrs.

Results stage 5

Rang	Fahrerteam	Nr.	Zeit
1	Carlos Sainz / Lucas Cruz	305	3:52:01 hrs.
2	Nasser Al-Attiyah / Matthieu Baumel	300	3:54:57 hrs.
3	Stéphane Peterhansel / Paulo Fiuza	302	3:58:12 hrs.

To make today's task more difficult, the bikers received the logbook only 25 minutes before the start. That's when the heads ran hot. On the 5th stage comes the unexpected end for one of the top favorites. The Briton Sam Sunderland falls at kilometer 182 and can no longer get up himself. Other bikers and the medical team were on the spot to help and care for him, and to be on the safe side he was taken away in a helicopter. As it turns out later, the injuries are not too tragic, but for the Briton it means the end of this year's Dakar. Pablo Quintanilla delivers another strong ride, he definitely does not want to lose the connection to the leading American Ricky Brabec. With today's second place of the day he succeeds in this and keeps himself with a little over 16 minutes on the 4th place in the overall classification and thus within striking distance. Brabec, Kevin Benafides, Cornejo and today's day winner Toby Price deliver a spectacular head-to-head race through the desert, a real highlight for every spectator and fan of the Dakar.