Peterhansel had a difficult start to his 35th appearance in the Dakar rally, with multiple punctures leaving him 30 minutes behind the leaders. However, on the second stage, he made a comeback and secured a narrow but significant 29-second victory over Sebastien Loeb from Prodrive.
From the beginning of the stage, Peterhansel took the lead and gradually extended his advantage to over a minute. At one point, Seth Quintero of the Toyota team briefly overtook Peterhansel, but the Audi driver quickly regained the top spot.
In the second half of the stage, Loeb, a nine-time World Rally champion, put pressure on Peterhansel and closed the gap to just five seconds at one point. However, Peterhansel managed to increase his lead again and ultimately won the stage, his first victory at Dakar since 2022.
Loeb finished in second place, over two minutes ahead of Quintero in third. This strong performance from Loeb helped his Prodrive team recover from a disappointing first day at Dakar.
Meanwhile, Peterhansel’s teammate Nasser Al-Attiyah started the day as his closest competitor but dropped to 11th place before gradually climbing back up to finish fourth. Al-Rajhi and Chicherit, both driving for Overdrive Toyota, finished fifth and sixth respectively.
Mattias Ekstrom, the winner of the prologue, finished seventh in his factory Audi, while Carlos Sainz, another Audi driver, came in eighth. Lucas Moraes from Toyota and Martin Prokop from MP-Sports completed the top 10.
Guillaume de Mevius, the winner of the previous stage, had a disappointing day and finished 19th, conceding 26 minutes to the leaders. As a result, Sainz took the overall lead after the second stage, with Al-Rajhi in second place and Loeb jumping to third.
In the provisional classification, Quintero leads the factory Toyota drivers in fourth place, followed by de Mevius and Ekstrom. Al-Attiyah, a five-time Dakar winner, is currently in seventh place, 12 minutes behind the leader. Peterhansel’s stage victory moved him up to ninth place, behind Moraes.
The top 10 is completed by Chicherit. The overall standings are still subject to change as the rally progresses.
Provisional classification after Stage 2 (Top 10):
1. Carlos Sainz – Audi – 8h49m38s
2. Yazeed Al-Rajhi – Toyota – +1m51s
3. Sebastien Loeb – Prodrive – +4m17s
4. Seth Quintero – Toyota – +7m36s
5. Guillaume de Mevius – Toyota – +7m44s
6. Mattias Ekstrom – Audi – +11m17s
7. Nasser Al-Attiyah – Prodrive – +12m16s
8. Lucas Moraes – Toyota – +12m17s
9. Stephane Peterhansel – Audi – +13m16s
10. Guerlian Chicherit – Toyota – +14m247s
