RIYADH — South African, Giniel de Villiers bounced back from a tough start to the 2021 Dakar Rally to win Thursday’s fifth stage, as Stephane Peterhansel extended his overall lead at the top over Nasser Al-Attiyah. De Villiers led the 456km special between Riyadh and Al Qaisumah from start to finish to claim his 17th career Dakar stage win. The South African’s advantage peaked at over seven minutes after the first 250km of running, but he eventually bagged the stage victory with a reduced margin of 58 seconds from countryman and Century driver Brian Baragwanath. The stage, which extended for 662 kilometers, including 456 kms that witnessed special stages subject to timing, saw Nasser Al-Attiyah finishing fourth, and Saudi driver Yazid Al-Rajhi coming in sixth. The 5th stage caused a number of navigational problems, most notably for Peterhansel’s X-raid Mini JCW teammate Carlos Sainz who got lost for the fourth day in succession. Bahrain Raid Xtreme’s Sébastien Loeb also got lost early in the stage, losing 30 minutes before dropping another 28 minutes by the second waypoint as the Frenchman suffered another three punctures. The stage was even harsher for Loeb, who lost 50 additional minutes, and smiles too have been wiped off the faces of the SRT team, which saw the hopes of a final top 10 finish for Mathieu Serradori and Yasir Seaidan perhaps definitively snuffed out. Following the end of Thursday’s running, Peterhansel — who has yet to win a stage — continues to lead the rally-raid with an extended margin of 6m11s, with Sainz 48m11s off the lead in third. In the quad race, Nicolás Cavigliasso took his time with the day’s stage but is starting to seriously distance his rivals after winning his second special of the week, just like “Chaleco” López did, though the Chilean only possesses a fragile lead of less than 11 minutes over Aron Domżała in the lightweight vehicle category. Speaking after finishing the 5th stage Aron Domżała said: “The last three stages were for tourists compared to that stage.” The Polish rider finished 5th on the stage won by “Chaleco” López and is especially ready to pounce on any opportunity, trailing behind the Chilean in the general standings by 10’51’’. He added, “It was tricky navigation. We got lost a little bit at the beginning, but then I would say it wasn"t a fast stage, it was really technical with really hard dunes. I love that sort of stage. “This is the Dakar — the last three stages were for tourists compared to that stage. We"re close to “Chaleco” but today he was much faster. In the dunes he has incredible speed, so today he put seven minutes into us, but there are still a lot of stages to go.” In the truck race, Dmitry Sotnikov boasts a reassuring advantage amounting to 33 minutes in the general standings over his teammate Anton Shibalov, while Andrey Karginov triumphed on the special Thursday. After finishing second in stage 4, Henk Lategan retired from the rally on Thursday with a fractured collarbone after his factory Toyota was involved in an accident just 20km into the stage. The Saudi Dakar Rally 2021 will continue tomorrow, Friday, with its sixth stage, which starts from Qaisumah and ends in Hail, covering a distance of 618 kilometers, of which 448 kilometers are special stage, with the end point in this stage being "Hail" as the seat of the rest day in this rally. — SG