Dakar 2018: Despres takes the lead for Peugeot while Barreda leads the bikes for Honda

The first proper timed stage of the 2018 Dakar Rally ended today with the competitors going off into the desert in a winding loop of 267km around the town of Pisco, in Peru.

Peugeot made an assault on the timing screen today with Frenchman Cyril Despres leading the overall standings with his compatriot Stephane Peterhansel in their 3008 DKRs. The two were split by just 27 seconds with the Toyota Hilux of Giniel De Villiers third overall, 5mins and 44 seconds behind.

After suffering brake trouble in the short opening stage, Sebastien Loeb managed to power his 3008 DKR to fourth overall, just 25 seconds behind De Villiers.

Early leader Nasser Al-Attiyah was another 6min.06sec behind in fifth position. Close behind the Qatari were the MINIs of Orlando Terranova and Mikko Hirvonen. The fifth Peugeot of Carlos Sainz was eighth, the Hilux of Bernhard Ten Brinke was ninth and MINI’s Nani Roma rounded out the overall top ten.

The stage was a mix of flat, hard-packed sand with the odd rocky trails and undulating dunes, where it appeared that the drivers piloting a Hilux were at an advantage over the rea-wheel-drive buggies from Peugeot.

However, the French cars made up more than enough time away from the dunes in order to take charge at the top.

HONDA AND BARREDA TAKE CHARGE

Spain’s Joan Barreda Bort shot to the top of the standings in the same stage on two wheels on his Honda, while Yamaha’s Adrien Van Beveren trailed him by two and a half minutes.

The KTM duo of Matthias Walkner and last year’s champion Sam Sunderland were third and fourth ahead of Husqvarna’s Pablo Quintanilla and Yamaha’s Xavier De Soultrait. Honda’s Kevin Benavides and Yamaha’s Franco Caimi were seventh and eighth overall, respectively.

Honda’s Michael Metge and KTM’s Toby Price rounded out the overall top ten.

Hero MotoSport Team Rally’s CS Santosh and Sherco-TVS’ Aravind KP were 28^th and 32^nd at the end of the second day’s running.

Sherco-TVS’s Joan Pedrero was 22^nd overall and Hero’s Oriol Mena 27^th.

Mena’s performance on a year-old bike was particularly impressive given that it is the former Enduro champion’s first Dakar Rally.