The 462km stage two saw order restored. After a somewhat surprising top 10 on day one, the Dakar big guns laid down their marker.
14 times a Dakar winner – six on a bike and eight on four wheels, Stephan Peterhansel powered his Audi RS Q e-tron into a lead he was never to relinquish for any length of time.
Stéphane Peterhansel scooped up his fiftieth career Dakar stage win. He is now the joint record holder for most stage wins together with Ari Vatanen. “For sure it’s much better than yesterday because at the end it’s not really complicated to be much better than yesterday. But first of all we took the pleasure to drive because the track was not too much destroyed, not too much rocks. So it’s been really fun to drive the car. The setting of the car is really good. For sure to take one victory of stage it’s always nice,” said Peterhansel at the Al Duwadimi finish.
Initially, Nasser Al-Attiyah hounded him just on a minute behind over the first 100 or so km before losing eight minutes around km 130, dropping the Qatari to 11th.
Stepping up into the void was Saudi hero Yazeed Al Rajhi/Timo Gottschalk in their Overdrive Racing Toyota Hilux with Seth Quintero/Dennis Zenz half a minute further back in their Toyota Gazoo Racing Hilux.
Loeb, meanwhile, had his BRX Prodrive Hunter up into fourth having started 19th in a run that looked ominous for those ahead.
At the sharp end, Quintero took the lead by 10 seconds after 167km, with Al Rajhi 26 seconds in arrears and Loeb now a menacing 1:18 away.
At the halfway mark, Peterhansel was back in front, the Audi 31 seconds clear of the factory Toyota pair and Loeb now into third, having squeezed ahead of Al Rajhi by 16 seconds. Such was the pace of the leading quartet that fifth placed Guerlain Chicherit/Alex Winocq were nearly five minutes adrift.
Over the next 50km further down the road, Quintero fought back, taking second off Loeb by three seconds while Al Rajhi faded somewhat, lagging 3½ minutes behind. Over the next 68km, not only did Loeb blow back past Quintero, putting him firmly in his place, the Frenchman closed to within five seconds of the lead Audi.
It was a no-holds-barred race between two of the biggest names in rallying. Peterhansel eked out his lead to 45 seconds, leaving Quintero and Al Rajhi well behind. With 30km to go, Peterhansel had a ‘comfortable’ lead of 38 seconds, reaching the end of the stage 29 seconds clear.
Quintero held on to third, but, almost unnoticed, Al-Attiyah had moved to one second away from the Saudi driver, which for the defending champion, was an easy ask over the final 28km.
Chicherit held on to sixth from Mattias Ekstrom/Emil Bergkvist’s Audi, with teammates Carlos Sainz/Lucas Cruz taking eighth – and the rally lead – while Toyota Gazoo Racing’s Brazilian driver Lucas Moraes took ninth from Martin Prokop/Viktor Chytka’s Orlen Ford Raptor.
The stars of stage one were nowhere to be seen, other than Sainz. Guillaume De Meuvis/Xavier Panseri, the overnight leader and “shock” winner of stage one, as some journalists called it, dropped 25 minutes to end 19th after opening the road and only his second ever stage in an Ultimate class car.
Giniel de Villiers, third overnight, was in the mid-20s for most of the stage, ended 21st after dropping almost 29 minutes. The X-Raid Mini of Vaidotas Zala/Paolo Fiuza – fourth in stage one – ended 13th.
Guy Botterill/Brett Cummings, having run second on Saturday with eight km remaining and dropped to seventh, plummeted down to 25th before clawing their way back to a more respectable 12th, still a great effort from the Dakar rookie.
The third Gazoo Racing Toyota star from stage one, Sa’ood Variawa and Francois Gazalet ended 29th.
Provisional Overall after stage 2:
Sainz, Al Rajhi (+1:51), Loeb (+4:17)
Jose Cornejo won the overall bike category on his Monster Honda by 5:59. The Chilean opened the road together with Ricky Brabec and Ross Branch and played his cards right to pick up his seventh Dakar stage win, the first since stage 12 last year.
Lucian Benavedes took second on his Husqvarna from Chilean Monster Honda rider Pablo Quintanilla.
Branch is still 2′30″ ahead of Cornejo at the top of the provisional overall standings with American Brabec in third.
