Britain’s Colin McRae, driving a Nissan, won the 381km timed section of the fifth stage of the Dakar Rally from Agadir to Smara in Morocco on Tuesday.
McRae timed 3:37,14 for his second victory of the rally, 6,53 ahead of South African Giniel de Villiers, also driving a Nissan, and 7,18 ahead of German Jutta Kleinschmidt in a Volkswagen.
The Scottish former world rally champion reclaimed top spot in the overall standings off American Robby Gordon.
He now stands 5,28 ahead of De Villiers, with Frenchman Luc Alphand in third, six minutes and one second adrift.
Overnight leader Robby Gordon encountered problems and finished more than 12 minutes adfrift of McRae and the American is now seventh overall over nine minutes adrift.
Two of the race favourites, Frenchman and reigning champion Stephane Peterhansel and Hiroshi Masuoka of Japan, both driving Mitsubishis, suffered difficulties and failed to prove any threat to McRae.
Peterhansel, whose car suffered several punctures, eventually finished 24,44 off McRae’s time, while Masuoka’s transmission problems saw him lose more than three hours.
”We hit a rock that was hidden by some grass 8km from the finish,” admitted Masuoka.
”Then we were passed by a BMW and subsequently we couldn’t use our windscreen wipers because they had run out of water.
”So we decided to slow down and I am confident we can make up the time in the desert stages later in the week,” he added.
However, his team manager, Dominique Serieys, was not overly impressed.
”He was perhaps affected by the dust or he was overly optimistic,” said Serieys.
Peterhansel blamed his problems on a cold.
”With a cold, it is more difficult to stay focused,” he said.
Earlier on Tuesday, Australia’s Andy Caldecott, riding a KTM, clocked four hours and nine seconds to finish three seconds ahead of Spain’s Marc Coma and 3,30 in front of France’s Cyril Despres in the motorbike race.
In the overall standings, Caldecott, who was prominent in the race last year before breaking his ankle, is second, 43 seconds behind Coma, who took over top spot from Frenchman David Fretigne.
Fretigne lost his way by following the tracks left by tourists and is now nearly 10 minutes adrift of Coma. Despres is third, 2,46 behind Coma.
In the sixth stage on Wednesday, competitors will face a 622km run to Zouerat, Mauritania, which has a 492km timed section. — Sapa-AFP