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Dakar Cars, Stage 5: Loeb extends lead with third win

Sebastien Loeb extended his lead on top of the Dakar Rally standings by taking his third win in four stages on Thursday.

#314 Peugeot: Sébastien Loeb, Daniel Elena

#314 Peugeot: Sébastien Loeb, Daniel Elena

A.S.O.

#311 Toyota: Bernhard Ten Brinke, Tom Colsoul
#303 Peugeot: Carlos Sainz, Lucas Cruz
#327 Mini: Jakub Przygonski, Andrei Rudnitski
#302 Peugeot: Stéphane Peterhansel, Jean-Paul Cottret
#311 Toyota: Bernhard Ten Brinke, Tom Colsoul
#325 Mini: Adam Malysz, Xavier Panseri
#321 Peugeot: Cyril Despres, David Castera
#301 Toyota: Giniel de Villiers, Dirk Von Zitzewitz
#325 Mini: Adam Malysz, Xavier Panseri

The French Peugeot driver, who had taken victory in Monday's and Tuesday's specials, continued to show impressive form in his first ever Dakar appearance.

Stage 5 fran from Jujuy to Uyuni, as the rally left Argentina to enter Bolivia with a 327-km timed special.

Starting third, Loeb set the pace from the start, posting the fastest time in the first two control points, keeping the gap steady around 1m15s.

In the end, however, Loeb finished just 22 seconds ahead of teammate Carlos Sainz, who was the quickest driver in the final part of the stage.

Loeb completed the stage in 3h32m34s to extend his lead in the standings to 7m48s over teammate Stephane Peterhansel, three minutes off Loeb's time in third.

The result helped Sainz move up to third overall, making it three Peugeots in the top three places.

The former World Rally champion jumped ahead of 2015 Dakar winner Nasser Al-Attiyah, who finished in fourth position and again as the quickest of the X-Raid Mini drivers.

South African Leeroy Poulter completed the top five as the best of the Toyotas, while Mikko Hirvonen had another strong day, finishing in sixth in his X-raid Mini, 7m42s behind Loeb.

Poulter dropped to fifth place in the standings behind the trio of Peugeots and Al-Attiyah, while Giniel de Villiers fell to sixth after coming home seventh on the stage.

American Robby Gordon (Gordini), Dutchman Bernhard ten Brinke (Toyota) and Argentine Orlando Terranova (Mini) rounded out the top 10.

The fourth Peugeot of Cyril Despres lost over an hour to Loeb with electronic problems, dropping the former Dakar bikes champion down to 22nd.

Standings after Stage 5:

Pos.No.Driver

Car

Time/Gap
1 314

 Sebastien Loeb

 Daniel Elena

Peugeot

13h27m25s
2 302

 Stephane Peterhansel
 Jean-Paul Cottret

Peugeot

7m48s
3 303

 Carlos Sainz

 Lucas Cruz

Peugeot

13m26s
4 300

 Nasser Al-Attiyah

 Matthieu Baumel

Mini

14m16s
5 319

 Leeroy Poulter

 Robert Howie

Toyota

18m38s
6 301

 Giniel de Villiers

 Dirk von Zitzewitz

Toyota

21m55s
7 315

 Mikko Hirvonen

 Michel Perin

Mini

23m24s
8 311

 Bernhard ten Brinke

 Tom Colsoul

Toyota

29m00s
9 307

 Vladimir Vasilyev

 Konstantin Zhiltsov

Toyota

33m27s
10 305

 Yazeed Al-Rajhi

 Timo Gottschalk

Toyota

37m43s

 

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