France’s Thierry Magnaldi in a Schlesser-Ford won the car section on the sixth stage of the Dakar Rally in Mauritania on Thursday, with South Africa’s Giniel de Villiers grabbing the overall lead.
Magnaldi clocked three hours, 22 minutes and 54 seconds over the 444km timed section on the 792km-long run from Tan Tan in southern Morocco to Zouerat, Mauritania, to head compatriot Jean-Louis Schlesser (Schlesser-Ford) at 2:55 and De Villiers (Volkswagen) at 3:46.
De Villiers’s third place gave him the overall lead 22 seconds ahead of former leader Carlos Sainz of Spain and 34 seconds clear of Germany’s Jutta Kleinschmidt. Both Sainz and Kleinschmidt are also driving Volkswagens.
The motorcycle section of the stage was won by Chile’s Carlo de Gavardo on a KTM in a time of 4:00:32. He placed ahead of two Spaniards — Isidre Esteve Pujol (KTM) at 3:52 and Marc Coma (KTM) at 5:55.
”Although I didn’t take any risks, we are now in the lead,” said De Villiers. ”The car was excellent in the camel grass — I even left Luc Alphand and Nani Roma behind me in these sections, but we can expect very difficult navigation on Friday.”
Sainz admitted that he had endured a day to forget.
”Everything started very well. We overtook Jutta Kleinschmidt and caught Nani Roma,” said the Spaniard. ”A tyre failure that we picked up in Roma’s dust forced us to stop 20km before the finish. Then we got lost.”
Coma retained the overall lead in the motorcycle section 3:43 ahead of Cyril Despres (KTM) of France and 4:25 clear of Pujol.
Despres suffered a crash during the stage from which he emerged with a dislocated collarbone.
”I don’t know exactly how it happened, because I lost consciousness,” Despres said. ”It was at the 273km mark in camel grass. Marc Coma and Isidre Esteve arrived 20 seconds to a minute after and I clenched my teeth for the last 150km.
”I’m a little disgusted because it’s 11 months of work. It’s a huge disappointment that I want to forget quickly.”
Despres said his dislocation was ranked a level two and that he wanted to continue the rally.
”Apparently, at a level three I wouldn’t have been able to have set off again, but I want to carry on. The medical staff told me that I couldn’t do more damage to the ligaments.
”I’m not thinking about victory, but I’ll try to make the start line tomorrow to see if I can help my team and see if the pain is bearable.”
Friday’s seventh stage takes the rally, which started in Lisbon on December 31, 521km from Zouerat to Atar in Mauritania with 499km of timed specials. — Sapa-AFP