First Time Winner Highlights Stage Five

While front-runners won in the bike, quad and truck classes, the car class saw an unexpected first time winner.

Russian Vladimir Vasilyev won stage five by 20 seconds over Yazeed Alrajhi. Robby Gordon finished third, a minute and 25 seconds back. Nasser Al-Attiyah held on to his car class lead with a fourth place finish, three minutes and 24 seconds behind his fellow Mini driver Yasilyev. Stéphane Peterhansel rounded out the top five, four minutes and four seconds back.

Giniel de Villiers came home sixth, five minutes and 44 seconds back. Four Minis rounded out the top ten. Pole Krzysztof Holowczyc finished eight minutes and 49 seconds after Vasilyev with Nani Roma finishing eighth, ten minutes and two seconds back. Erik Van Loon and Orlando Terranova finished ninth and tenth with the Dutchman 11 minutes and 35 seconds off of Vasilyev with the Argentine finishing 19 seconds behind Van Loon.

Al-Attiyah leads de Villiers by ten minutes and 35 seconds with Alrahji 20 minutes and 29 seconds back. Holowcyzc is 48 minutes and 55 seconds back in fourth with Van Loon rounding out the top five, 53 minutes and 25 seconds behind Al-Attiyah. Bernhard Ten Brinke is 56 minutes and 19 seconds back in sixth. Vasilyev jumped up to seventh with his stage win but is nearly an hour and ten minutes off the overall lead.

Peterhansel is ninth, an hour and 29 seconds back of the Qatari. Gordon is five fours and 45 minutes minutes back. Terranova lost a lot of time on stage four and is now nearly six hours and 48 minutes off the lead.

Marc Coma won in the bike class, his first of the 2015 race. The KTM rider won by two minutes and 16 seconds over Joan Barreda. Pablo Quintanilla finished third, two minutes and 40 seconds back with Slovakian Stefan Svitko coming home in fourth, three minutes and 54 seconds back. Paulo Gonçalves rounded out the top five, four minutes and 37 seconds after Coma with fellow Portuguese Honda rider Hélder Rodrigues six minutes and 35 seconds back in sixth.

Jeremias Israel Esquerre seven minutes and ten seconds back in seventh with Matthias Walkner finishing 14 seconds after the Chilean. Alain Duclos finished ninth, nine minutes and 57 seconds back. Toby Price finished eight seconds after the Frenchman with Jordi Viladoms finishing 11th, 13 minutes and 48 seconds after Coma.

Barreda retains the bike lead with Coma ten minutes and 33 seconds back. Gonçalves is third, 22 minutes and 50 seconds back. Quintanilla is fourth, 31 minutes and six seconds back. Viladoms is fourth, just over five minutes behind Quintanilla. Ruben Faria is sixth, 38 minutes and 13 seconds behind Barreda after finishing 15th on stage five. Walkner is 23 seconds behind Faria with Price a minute and 18 seconds behind the Austrian. Svitko jumped to ninth, 42 minutes and five seconds behind Barreda and Rodrigues rounds out the top ten, 48 seconds behind the Slovakian.

Duclos and Israel Esquerre are 11th and 12th, the Frenchman 44 minutes and 12 seconds back and the Chilean 59 minutes and ten seconds back.

Rafał Sonik won his second consecutive stage and dominated winning by ten minutes and 51 seconds over Ignacio Casale. Jeremias Gonzalez Ferioli finished third, 21 minutes and 41 seconds back. Sergio Lafuente finished fifty seconds behind Gonzalez Ferioli in fourth with Chilean Victor Manuel Gallegos Lozic rounding out the top five, just over a half hour behind Sonik.

Sonik's lead has been extended to 24 minutes and 23 seconds over Casale. Lafunete is 26 minutes and 20 seconds back in third. Gonzalez Ferioli is just over an hour and a half back in fourth. Argentine Pablo Copetti is fifth overall, nearly an hour and 43 minutes back.

Eduard Nikolaev took the truck class lead by winning his second consecutive stage. The Russian defeated class leader entering the stage, Airat Mardeev by nine minutes and 58 seconds. Belarusian Siarhei Viazovich finished third, 15 mounts and 46 seconds back. Aleš Loprais finished 57 seconds back in fourth with Dmitry Sotnikov rounding out the top five, 20 minutes and 45 seconds back. Andrey Karginov finished six minutes and three seconds off Sotnikov.

Nikolaev holds an eight minute and one second lead over Mardeev with Loprais 27 minutes and 28 seconds back in third. Karginov is fourth, eight seconds behind the Czech. Stoking rounds out the top five, 45 minutes and 57 seconds back. Viazovich is sixth, 51 seconds and 28 seconds back. Hans Stacey dropped to seventh, an hour and 13 minutes back after finishing over 57 minutes back in fifteenth on stage five.

Stage six heads up the Pacific Coast from Antofagasta and Iquique.