Dakar 2016: KTM Clinches Top Four Spots in Stage 5

After being majorly dominated by the Honda factory riders, Dakar 2016 finally witnessed very-familiar KTM machines emerging on top. Where the Red Bull factory riders Toby Price and Antoine Meo finished 1st and 2nd respectively, a privateer Stefan Svitko, riding his KTM 450 Rally Replica, finished 3rd making it an all KTM podium.

The best non-KTM rider to perform was Team Honda's Joan Barreda Bort who finished 5 minutes and 54 seconds behind Price. Barreda's teammate Paulo Goncalves, who started the stage from 1st, finished at a not-so-impressive 12th rank.

Team Yamaha's number one rider, Helder Rodrigues, finished at an impressive 8th spot despite starting from 16th on the grid. The only Indian connection left at the Dakar Rally now, the Sherco TVS RTR 450 machines, finished 9th and 10th. They were being ridden by Juan Pedrero Garcia and Alain Duclos respectively.

Also Read: India's CS Santosh Out After Stage 4 Due to Technical Issues

All this simply means that Toby Price has now moved from 7th to 3rd in overall standings, and Honda's Joan Barreda has slipped a rank further to 4th overall.

After stage 5, the overall standings are:

1. Paulo Goncalves (Honda) - 14:30:07

2. Stefan Svitko (KTM) - 14:31:52

3. Toby Price (KTM) - 14:31:54

4. Joan Barreda (Honda) - 14:32:34

5. Matthias Walkner (KTM) - 14:33:04

6. Kevin Benavides (Honda) - 14:36:53

7. Antoine Meo (KTM) - 14:36:56

8. Ruben Faria (Husqvarna) - 14:38:20

9. Pablo Quintanilla (Husqvarna) - 14:38:37

10. Alain Duclos (Sherco TVS) - 14:43:46

Image Credits: Red Bull