Winner, Loeb jumps in the ranking, Peterhansel loses time

What if the Nasser Al-Attiyah-Stéphane Peterhansel duel opened up to a third thief? Sébastien Loeb (Peugeot ) started the second week of the 2019 Dakar with a bang, with a second consecutive stage victory Sunday January 13 in San Juan de Marcona (Peru).

The nine-time world rally champion (WRC) started at the head of the sixth stage, 310 kilometers long. He was able to keep pace with the leader of the event Nasser Al-Attiyah (Toyota) during the first passing points before taking advantage of a drop in pace from the Qatari in the final to win with a lead of 2'17''.

“It went well, but we made mistakes, reveals the Alsatian. We saw that Nasser had done the same (that we), we were looking for a waypoint on one side of a dune, we got embarked on the wrong side of the cordon, we had to make a big detour, to return to another track, so we all had to leave two minutes.

We turned around a bit to find a waypoint, but I think others did too, it was a complicated day. We lost time on the right and on the left. We didn't tank ourselves, we saw the hole where we got stuck last year, but we didn't get trapped. I'm very happy to be at the finish. But it’s not over, there’s still a lot of sand waiting for us.”

Nasser Al-Attiyah admits, he made a mistake a few kilometers from the finish. “We did a good job all day, but we made a mistake in the last 15 kilometers. We took the wrong valley, and we had to turn around for quite a while to turn around and get back on the right track. We lost a few minutes like that, but I'm still happy with our position. The performance was still good, even if I know that Sébastien is fighting and that there is a battle to be fought. It's not really comfortable, but it's good to have had this day which was very difficult. »

Sébastien Loeb remains cautious but he carries out an excellent operation. In one step, he goes from fifth to second place overall, 37'43'' behind Al-Attiyah-Baumel! The outgoing winner of the Cross-Country Rally World Cup Jakub Przygonski (Mini), fourth this morning, lost more than an hour.

But the big feeling is the 15 minutes conceded by Stéphane Peterhansel (Mini) on the leading Toyota. The record holder for success on the rally-raid chased after the lost time from the first section of the special. In the general classification, he slipped to third place, 41'14'' behind Al-Attiyah-Baumel. As for Nani Roma (Mini), he clings to the foot of the virtual podium (+45'24'').

Dakar 2019 Ranking Stage 6:

General classification Dakar 2019 after Stage 6: