Masuoka sets pace to pass Peterhansel

Hiroshi Masuoka, the defending champion, won yesterday's fifth stage of the Dakar Rally in Tunisia to take the overall lead of the event from Stéphane Peterhansel.

The Japanese driver completed the 285-kilometre special stage from Tozeur to El Borma in 2hr 31min 59sec to overtake Peterhansel, his fellow Mitsubishi driver, and establish a lead of 55 seconds.Masuoka said: "I drove normally, nothing too hard. We started seventh on the road and I passed five cars."

Peterhansel clocked the second quickest time of the day, just over two minutes adrift of Masuoka, with Kenjiro Shinozuka eight minutes off the pace in third.

Peterhansel, who has won the motorcycle category of the event six times, admitted he had not been pushing as hard as he could. "We had a good stage, but made a couple of little mistakes, and I drove one section quite slowly," he said.

In the motorcycle category, Richard Sainct won the stage to extend his lead. He was 17 seconds quicker than Fabrizio Meoni, who moves into second place overall.

Britain's Patsy Quick continues to lead the women's section and lies 116th overall.