Today’s 5th Stage of the 2017 Dakar was shortened due to poor weather conditions, but that didn’t seem to make it much easier for the competitors.
KTM’s Sam Sunderland came out on top today. So far in his Dakar attempts Sunderland has been ruled out by the end of stage 5, so today was a breakthrough for the English rider.
He finished 7m7s ahead of Honda’s Paulo Goncalves, who is one of five Honda riders hit with a 1 hour penalty for a refuelling infringement.
As well as receiving the 1 hour fuel infringement penalty, Joan Barreda was one of many riders who faced navigational issues today, and the previous leader has dropped well down the leaderboard.
Australian debutante Matt Hart has finished slightly better than we reported earlier today after all the stage timings and penalties were finalised. He actually has been placed 100th today.
Matt has been riding with an injured shoulder since he crashed on Stage 3 two days ago.
You can read our earlier Stage 5 report here.