"It is obviously very disappointing for the whole team," said X-raid BMW team boss Sven Quandt. "Stephane was driving superbly and then we have this unfortunate mechanical problem.”
"This was a new prop shaft that we had fitted last night and it failed after 120km today. It is so difficult to drive this stage in two-wheel drive and just reaching the finish without dropping too much time is an achievement in itself," added Sven Quandt.
This unfortunate event cost Peterhansel over two hours and Carlos Sainz took the opportunity to get into the lead for the first time this year, despite coming in second some 2m10s behind American Mark Miller, however bear in mind that Sainz had to stop in order to change a flat tire.
"When we got to the really rocky sections I really was going easy," said Miller. "We had no problems, never got out of the car, and it was a great day. We had discussed that really the Dakar starts today. I think we took off the girlie skirt today, but there were no dunes today and I'm sure we'll have some tough days to come in the dunes."
After stage five of the event, German car manufacturer Volkswagen moved with three cars in the first three spots, while nine times Dakar winner Peterhansel dropped to last place:
Overall positions after stage five:
Pos Driver Car Time/Gap
1. Carlos Sainz VW 16h10m51s
2. Nasser Al-Attiyah VW + 4m37s
3. Mark Miller VW + 9m39s
4. Robby Gordon Hummer + 59m55s
5. Carlos Sousa Mitsubishi + 1h13m22s
6. Krzysztof Holowczyc Nissan + 1h16m18s
7. Mauricio Neves VW + 1h20m10s
8. Guerlain Chicherit BMW + 1h27m41s
9. Guilherme Spinelli Mitsubishi + 1h37m48s
10. Stephane Peterhansel BMW + 2h04m49s
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