Stephane Peterhansel has moved into the lead of the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge after a steady second day of the event.
The Peterhansel husband-and-wife crew avoided trouble in their Mini John Cooper Works car on another day of challenging conditions, going from being eight minutes down overnight to holding a two-minute lead going into Tuesday.
Sunday leader Cyril Despres had a tough day, losing over three hours with a broken jack and has dropped down to 11th.
The stage win went to a flying Yazeed Al Rajhi but a collection of penalties received for Sunday’s transmission problem means he is still well down the order.
Taking up the other podium spots are Bernhard Ten Brinke and Khalid Al Qassimi who are in a tight battle for second after both losing time stuck in the dunes.
Reigning champion Jakub Przygonski has passed Martin Prokop to go into fourth despite stopping twice to help his rival and having a door blow off his Mini John Cooper Works buggy when getting out to help.
Przygonski’s reward for repaying Prokop’s kindness from Sunday was to be hindered by sand and dust swirling into the car.
Prokop sits in fifth, ahead of Vladimir Vasilyev in sixth five minutes behind.
Seventh-placed Aron Domzala in his Toyota Hilux continued to be affected by ‘seasickness’ from the rolling dunes and also experienced an electrical issue.
T3 category leader Casey Currie is in eighth, only nine seconds ahead of Reinaldo Varela while Essa Al Dossery rounds out the top 10.
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