Dakar 2018, Stage 5: Barreda dominates, van Beveren keeps lead
Honda rider Joan Barreda has cut 15 of his 22-minute gap to the lead of the 2018 Dakar Rally's bike class by dominating Stage 5.
Photo by: Honda Racing
Barreda, who lost over 20 minutes on Stage 3 and gained ground only marginally the next day, was comfortably quickest throughout the 266km run, the final day of the event which was run entirely in Peru.
While the gap between first and second in the class was consistently below five minutes in the past four stages, Barreda had already built up a lead of 6m42s by the second waypoint of six.
He kept increasing that advantage to eventually top the stage by 10m26s from Matthias Walkner, who emerged victorious of a multi-bike fight for second.
The Austrian's KTM teammate Antoine Meo held the spot for most of the stage only to fall behind Walkner, as well as Honda's Kevin Benavides in the end.
Yamaha rider Adrien van Beveren, who took over the overall lead by topping Stage 4, was quickly more than 10 minutes behind, and eventually lost 13m48s to Barreda in fifth.
However, his closest challenger Pablo Quintanilla (Husqvarna) fell late in the stage and was a further 14 minutes adrift.
Barreda's teammate Benavides took over second overall as a result, the Argentinian sitting exactly one minute behind van Beveren.
The Yamaha and Honda riders are joined by the lead KTM of Walkner in a close three-way fight for first place, as the Austrian is only 14 seconds behind Benavides.
Barreda has gained nine positions to move up to fourth, edging Xavier de Soultrait (Yamaha) out by nine seconds.
Karyakin out with broken arm, rookie wins stage
Defending quads champion and Ignacio Casale's main rival Sergey Karyakin was forced to retire from the rally after the Russian suffered a crash and broke his arm 44 kilometres into Stage 5.
Karyakin's incident leaves Casale with a 40-minute lead with Alexis Hernandez standing as his closest challenger.
Casale, who won the first three stages but was then beaten by Karyakin on the fourth day, once again had to settle for second as he was narrowly edged out by Dakar rookie Nicolas Cavigliasso.
The 26-year-old Argentinian, champion of the Merzouga Dakar Series in 2017, established an early six-minute lead in the stage and, while Casale consistently closed the gap, Cavigliasso still finished ahead by 1m23s.
Watch video highlights...
Standings after Stage 5 (Top 10, Bike class)
Pos. | Rider | Bike | Time/Gap |
1 | Adrien van Beveren | Yamaha | 14h37m40s |
2 | Kevin Benavides | Honda | 1m00s |
3 | Matthias Walkner | KTM | 1m14s |
4 | Joan Barreda | Honda | 7m33s |
5 | Xavier de Soultrait | Yamaha | 7m42s |
6 | Toby Price | KTM | 10m39s |
7 | Antoine Meo | KTM | 12m12s |
8 | Gerard Farres | KTM | 15m24s |
9 | Pablo Quintanilla | Husqvarna | 16m12s |
10 | Ricky Brabec | Honda | 25m48s |
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