French rider Alain Duclos won his first Dakar Rally stage for eight years on Friday, but the gruelling event was overshadowed by the deaths of a competitor, a father of five, and two journalists.
Duclos, riding a Sherco, beat overall motorcycling section leader Marc Coma by 75 seconds after a 400km timed run from Tucuman to Salta in Argentina.
However, his celebrations were muted after it was revealed that the 9374km race, which crosses Argentina, Chile and Bolivia, had accounted for three more lives.
Belgian motorcyclist Eric Palante, 50, riding for the Honda team, died on Thursday’s fifth stage between Chilecito and Tucuman.
Dakar organisers ASO issued a statement reporting that a support truck had discovered the father of five’s lifeless body at 8.30am local time on Friday.
“No alert was received by the organisers. Eric had been replenished with water during the afternoon,” the statement said.
Palante is the 23rd competitor in 36 editions to die in the Dakar Rally.
Meanwhile, two members of an Argentine news team also died Thursday when the car they were driving in fell into a ravine, the Super Rally magazine said.
“The dead are journalism student Agustin Mina, 20, and Daniel Ambrosio, 51, who loved auto racing,” magazine manager Francisco Delgado told AFP.
Duclos’s last win on the Dakar came in Bamako in Mali eight years ago when the event was still staged in Africa.
“Today, it was my type of terrain. We’ve got over the worst over the last few days and the rest day has arrived at the right time – it couldn’t be better timed,” he said.
Duclos is third overall after six stages, more than an hour behind former three-time champion Coma on a KTM.
Joan Barreda, on a Honda, was fourth on Friday but is second in the overall standings, 42min 17sec behind fellow Spaniard Coma.
In the cars, defending champion Stephane Peterhansel drove to victory on stage six.
Peterhansel, six-time champion in the motorcycle section and five-time winner on four wheels, finished 2min 43sec ahead of Qatar’s 2011 champion Nasser Al-Attiyah and 5min 20sec in front of Argentina’s Orlando Terranova.
Spain’s Nani Roma, in another Mini, was sixth on the day and retained the overall lead.
