'Good Samaritan' Sunderland rewarded with Dakar victory

Sam Sunderland was Friday promoted to fifth stage winner on the Dakar Rally.

AREQUIPA (AFP) - British motorcyclist Sam Sunderland was Friday promoted to fifth stage winner on the Dakar Rally after sportingly stopping mid-race to help a fellow rider who had fallen and suffered a head injury.

Frenchman Xavier de Soultrait, on a Yamaha, had been the first across the line on the run from Moquegua to Arequipa while Sunderland, on a KTM, finished down in 14th place, 7min 29sec behind.

However, the 29-year-old 2017 Dakar champion lost more than 10 minutes when he gallantly stopped racing to come to the aid of Portugal s Honda rider Paulo Goncalves who was injured in a fall after 155km of the stage.

Goncalves suffered a head injury and a broken right hand, forcing him into the fifth retirement of his Dakar career.

Organisers said stewards decided to hand Sunderland back the 10 minutes he spent at the Portuguese rider s side, thus making him the stage winner by a margin of 3min 23sec.

In the overall standings, America s Ricky Brabec, on a Honda, leads Sunderland by 59sec with Chile s Pablo Quintanilla, riding a Husqvarna, at 2min 52sec back as the event heads into a rest day on Saturday.

"It was a mass start day and there was not much to win or lose, but it was unfortunate for Goncalves and I stopped with him," said Sunderland.

"I stopped for a long time with him, maybe ten minutes, I m not sure.

"Then I was back with all the other guys in the dust. I didn t have any reference of how much time I was losing, so I was thinking that my race was going downhill."

On the 714km marathon auto race Friday, nine-time world rally champion Sebastien Loeb claimed the honours in a private entry Peugeot for his second stage win of this year s edition.

Loeb finished more than 10 minutes in front of two-time Dakar champion and overnight leader Nasser al-Attiyah of Qatar in a Toyota and 24min 04sec ahead of Spain s Nani Roma in a Mini.

"It was a beautiful stage and we attacked strongly," said Loeb who had endured three punctures on Thursday s fourth stage.

Al-Attiyah shrugged off Loeb s performance.

"Sebastien had nothing to lose, he had to push to climb back into the time charts," he said.

"As far as I m concerned, I think (13-time winner) Stephane Peterhansel is the dangerman."

However, Peterhansel is now 24 minutes behind al-Attiyah in the title race after a fourth-place finish on Friday, 26 minutes back from Loeb and 16 off his Qatari rival.

It was a disastrous day for Peterhansel whose car became ensnared in binding  fesh fesh  dune grass and had to be towed out by Roma.