Loeb leads Dakar Rally at midway point

Date

2/3/2016 6:06:29 PM

(MENAFN- Khaleej Times)

Sebastian Loeb leads the Dakar Rally at the midway point by more than two minutes from French countryman Stephane Peterhansel.

Carlos Sainz won the seventh stage on Saturday 38 seconds ahead of Loeb.

Loeb was 2 minutes 22 seconds ahead of Peterhansel and 4:50 in front of Sainz.

In the motorcycle division Paulo Goncalves of Portugal was the leader 3:12 ahead of Toby Price of Australia and 9:24 clear of Stefan Svitko of Slovakia.

Antoine Meo of France won the stage.

The Dakar Rally running in Argentina and Bolivia resumes on Monday and ends next Saturday in Rosario Argentina.

Meanwhile A Bolivian spectator was killed at the Dakar Rally on Saturday when he was hit by a Mitsubishi driven by Frenchman Lionel Baud during the seventh stage from Bolivia to Argentina organisers said.

"The organisation's medical service could only confirm unfortunately the death of the person involved (in the accident)" they said in a statement after the stage from Uyumi in Bolivia to Salta in northwest Argentina.

Reports said the 63-year-old man was hit at the 82km mark of the stage.

It was the 64th death in the history of the annual endurance race since 1979 which has included 23 competitors killed and the sixth since it was moved from Africa to South America in 2009 for security reasons.

The prologue stage to this year's event in Argentina was also marred by an accident when a Mini driven by Chinese Guo Meiling went into the crowd and injured eight spectators including three children and a pregnant woman.

The Dakar Rally started out as a gruelling race from Paris across the Sahara to the Senegalese capital Dakar and remains one of the most formidable challenges in motorsport.

Legal Disclaimer:
MENAFN provides the information “as is” without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the provider above.