Salta, Argentina - Carlos Sainz claimed victory on the seventh stage of the Dakar Rally on Saturday as Peugeot team-mate Sebastien Loeb reclaimed the overall lead on a rain-lashed day that saw the gruelling event suffer another tragedy.
A 63-year-old man was killed when he was involved in a collision with a car driven by French competitor Lionel Baud.
A statement from the organisers said: “An accident occurred at the 82km mark of the day on Bolivian territory when competitor 409 Lionel Baud collided with a 63-year-old man who had become isolated on the track.”
The 38th running of the Dakar had already got off to a dramatic start when a car driven by Chinese duo Guo Meiling and Min Liao smashed into a group of spectators watching the prologue in Buenos Aires, leaving 10 people injured, three of them seriously.
In 2010, the second year the race was run in South America, a 4x4 piloted by the German-Swiss pair of Mirco Schultis and Ulrich Leardi was involved in a crash which left a 28-year-old woman spectator dead.
The following year, there was another fatality at Chilecito in Argentina.
Disastrous start for Dakar Rally
Violent thunderstorms brought the race to a temporary halt as heavy rain swamped the 817km seventh stage between the famed Bolivian salt flats of Uyuni and Salta in Argentina.
The race was stopped when water levels rose to dangerous levels at the 350km mark of the stage.
A race official said: "The race has been suspended for the time being as a result of the violent thunderstorms sweeping through the second timed section, and the sudden rise of water levels in a rio around 350 kilometres."
Forty motorcycles had already started the second part of Saturday's stage just inside the Argentine frontier when the decision was taken. No cars had yet entered the stage.
The weather has brought major headaches for the organisers of the 38th running of the Dakar with the first stage cancelled and the second and third stages also shortened.
LOEB BACK IN THE LEAD
Sainz posted his first stage win of 2016 on the 817km run from Bolivia's famed salt flats at Uyuni to Salta in Argentina, beating Loeb by 38 seconds with defending champion Nasser Al-Attiyah in a Mini finishing third, 3m22s back.
It was the sixth consecutive stage win for the dominant Peugeot team, putting nine-times world rally champion Loeb back in the lead of the overall standings with a 2m22s advantage over team-mate and 11-times Dakar winner Stephane Peterhansel, who was fourth on Saturday, 3m27s off the pace,
Sainz was 4m50s off the overall lead in third as the race took a rest day on Sunday.
“We're in the lead and that's what counts,” said Loeb. “I didn't expect to be in the lead on the rest day.
“We'll make the most of it. We'll have to work hard the next few stages. The next three stages are packed with pitfalls, they're tricky, but we'll try and do our best. Our only strategy is to attack a lot and post solid times.”
ALL THREE SA HILUXES IN THE TOP 10
Dakar veteran and 2009 winner Giniel de Villiers put in another solid run on Saturday in the leading Toyota Gazoo Racing SA Hilux, finishing seventh on the wet and muddy high-altitude stage, 5m25s off the pace, and holding sixth overall as the race reached its mid-point.
For the naturally-aspirated V8 petrol-engined Hiluxes, a return to the lower elevations of Argentina couldn't have come soon enough, he said.
Leeroy Poulter recorded the ninth fastest time on Stage 7, less than seven minutes behind Sainz and just 13 seconds slower than hotshot Hilux newbie Yazeed al Rajhi. After seven of 13 stages Poulter and Al Rajhi were seventh and eighth respectively in the overall standings.
Mark Corbett in the leading South African-built CR5 prototype buggy continued his climb up the rankings with another personal-best stage result, coming in 23rd on Saturday, less than half an hour off the pace, and moving up three places to 31st in the overall standings.
His Century Racing team-mate Colin Matthews, however, did even better, finishing 27th for the day - by far his best Dakar performance yet - and leapfrogging six places to 36th overall.
Sean Reitz in the Red-lined Nissan Navara finished 41st for the day, moving up five places to 45th overall.
MOTORCYCLES
Antoine Meo of France on a KTM was the quickest up to the point where the stage for the bike and quad competitors was cut short,
with Honda riders Kevin Benavides and Paulo Goncalves less than two minutes adrift.
KTM star Toby Price, winner of three out of sixth stages thus far, could only manage fifth for the day but retained his second position in the overall standings
Leading South African motorcycle competitor Kobus Potgieter and his KTM battled in the adverse conditions to finish 102nd for the day out of 112 bikestill running - and still moved up two places to 100th on the overall standings one place to c
“Iron Man” Wessel Bosman, however, didn’t start Stage 7 after his huge crash in Stage 6.
“At 110km I had a good fall at about 100 km/h when I had to make room for one of the front cars,” he related. “I hit a side wall next to the road and went flying, and then rolling.
“I broke my left wrist, bones in both hands and a chip in the elbow.
“The race medics got there quickly after a quad rider pressed the emergency button on my Iritrack; they wanted to stop me but I asked whether it would be OK to carry on if they strapped me up.
“They phoned to get permission and the main medic centre agreed that I could continue if I could do a push-up.
“So, after the hardest push-up of my life I finished Stage 6 - but must admit it wasn’t much fun in the sand and rocks.
“At least I had nice food at the bivouac, even though I was the last rider in.”
All three riders on the South African Team Rhide quad squad took strain on Stage 7; Brian Baragwanath finished ninth and dropped one place to 10th overall, George Twigge came in 27th and dropped two positions to 13th overall and Ted Barbier, 31st for the day, lost one position to 30th overall.