Peterhansel leapfrogs champion

The Frenchman Stéphane Peterhansel recaptured the lead in the Dakar Rally yesterday but Jean-Louis Schlesser, his compatriot – and a former winner – was forced to withdraw from the sixth stage. Peterhansel took the lead back from the defending champion, the Japanese driver Hiroshi Masuoka, after the 278km drive from El Borma, Tunisia, to Ghadamès in Libya.

Schlesser, the winner in 1999 and 2000, was forced out 68km into the stage with engine problems, having started the day in eighth place overall.

Masuoka had a 55-second advantage but Peterhansel finished in 2hr 02min 56sec, 1min 44sec quicker to give the Frenchman a 49sec lead going into today's stage, a 584km haul in Libya to Ghât.

Another Frenchman, Richard Sainct, had his lead in the motorcycle section cut by two minutes and had only 17 seconds over Spain's Nani Roma. The stage went to South Africa's Alfie Cox.