Dakar - 2013 | Stage 5, Day 5 - [Arequipa-Arica]

Dakar rally on its 5th day in running is scheduled to depart Arequipa, Peru and cross the border and finish at Arica, Chile. The day also went on a completely different special stages, where the Bikes/Quads start racing closer from the start, while the Cars/Trucks a longer connective transport to start racing.

The day's route is mostly dirt/gravel with lots of rocks in and beside roads, and with a small stretch of sandy surface. It will be the toughest also as the competitors are expected to endure, with the machines on the sizzling hot route over very harsh terrain. The route is mostly downhill as they get closer to the seashore city Arica, but it does also have sections of uphill in today's itinerary.

The race started almost right after they departed the Rally HQ in Arequipa, and have shorter stage distance of about 136kms, compared to the bigger brothers cruised to theirs.

David Casteu

Joan Barreda Bort, was the first biker to start racing towards the finish line at Cachendo, hits trouble and finishes 3hrs over stage winner, David Casteu. Olivier Pain still Overall leader, with just over a minute lead to today's stage winner.

Route Terrain - Bikes / Quads

On Quads, Marcos Patronelli started first, finished first and sits comfortably in first overall. Second placed, Husseini hit trouble mid-stage and finishes with an hour as penalty. Chilean rider Ignacio Nicolas Casale, now takes the second overall, trailing more than an hour to the leader

Cars and trucks had bigger transport/road section to line up for the start. After 284kms of road transport, Nasser took the [176kms] stage start first. However, Peterhansel's team-mate, Mini All4 Racing driver, Nani Roma claimed his first stage victory with 1m23s over him. Robby Gordon finished 3rd, with a gap of 1m41s to stage leader. 

Carlos Sainz finished 5th, while Nasser Al-attiyah in 7th. Another 53kms of road section, ended the day's action. In the overall results, Peterhansel still leads Nasser by now just under 10 minutes.

Trucks started about 2hrs after the cars departed from finish line. Hans Stacey took his first stage win, while Kamaz driver Nikholaev finished second, while Gerard De Rooy did third. However Gerard still leads overall trucks.