Brabec staged a mission to maintain his place at the head of the overall leader board. The American rider, finishing in fourth place on the day, was thus able to keep the day’s winner Price within a three minute distance. Brabec holds top spot in the general rankings with a nine-and-a-half minute advantage over the nearest second place rival.

“My day was good. It started out freezing cold which I don’t really agree with,” said Brabec. “It was really fast. A lot of hp and sandy tracks. I rode with Nacho. We made it to the finish which is our number one goal. First in the general is amazing. We are sitting in a good spot for tomorrow to push. We will try and catch the main group and not lose too much time. Right now we are taking it day by day. It’s too hard to have a strategy. There’s a lot of racing left to do. We are going to go day by day and hope for good results each day.”

Joan Barreda noted how much the sensations in the race have improved, with the Spaniard looking far more at ease than on previous days. Posting sixth place on the stage leaves the Dakar Legend in seventh position overall, with the rider looking set to improve further over the coming days. “My day was good. It started out freezing cold which I don’t really agree with. It was really fast. A lot of hp and sandy tracks. I rode with Nacho. We made it to the finish which is our number one goal. First in the general is amazing. We are sitting in a good spot for tomorrow to push. We will try and catch the main group and not lose too much time. Right now we are taking it day by day. It’s too hard to have a strategy. There’s a lot of racing left to do. We are going to go day by day and hope for good results each day,” Barreda finished.

Third place in the overall standings is, likewise, a satisfactory position for Kevin Benavides who celebrates his 31st birthday today. The Argentinean finished in a buoyant ninth position, some 12 minutes adrift of the winner, but is confident of being able to take advantage of the favourable starting position to strike hard tomorrow. “Today was very hard physically,” said Benavides. “I was in second position so I dropped a bit of time. In the first part of the special there was a lot of navigation and I made a minor error there. From there we entered the open desert with many kilometres of sand and vegetation, all quite technical and complicated. I think today I did a good job. We lost some time but I think we are in a good position to start the stage tomorrow. I want to thank everyone who is congratulating me on my anniversary. It is very special to celebrate it here.”

Yesterday’s winner, Nacho Cornejo opened the track for large stretches of today’s stage until he was reached, first by Ricky Brabec, then by other riders. The Chilean is fifth in the overall standings, a position which he wishes to improve upon tomorrow on the longest stage of the opening half of the rally, before the riders get a well-earned rest.

Tomorrow sees the sixth stage from De Ha’il to the capital of the country, Riyadh, where the rest day awaits. Like today, the riders will once again receive the roadbook shortly before starting the special – the longest scheduled timed stage of the rally so far. The total distance to cover from bivouac-bivouac will be 830 kilometres.

Provisional Results Stage Five – 2020 Dakar Rally

1. Toby Price (AUS), KTM, 3:57:33
2. Pablo Quintanilla (CHL), Husqvarna, 3:58:45 +1:12
3. Andrew Short (USA), Husqvarna, 4:00:04 +2.31
4. Ricky Brabec (USA), Honda, 4:00:36 +3:03
5. Matthias Walkner (AUT), KTM, 4:04:27 +6:54

Provisional Standings (after stage five) – 2020 Dakar Rally

1. Ricky Brabec (USA), Honda, 19:07:19
2. Toby Price (AUS), KTM, 19:16:25 +9:06
3. Kevin Benavides (ARG), Honda, 19:18:51 +11:32
4. Pablo Quintanilla (CHL), Husqvarna, 19:23:20 +16:01
5. Jose Ignacio Cornejo (CHL), Honda, 19:27:44 +20:25