José Ignacio Cornejo was in contention for victory in the fifth stage of the Dakar Rally. The rider finished third, 1m31s behind the winner, Luciano Benavides (Hero MotoSports).
With this result, the Spaniard from Hero MotoSports heads into the rest day in ninth place overall – 43m50s behind the leader, Daniel Sanders (Red Bull KTM).
In an interview with the Dakar’s official site, Cornejo spoke about a route that required extensive navigation, during which he spent much of the stage in a small group of riders taking turns leading the way:
– It was a long stage with lots of navigation but also some rocks in places. I was third to set off and after refuelling, there were four of us with Daniel Sanders, Tosha Schareina and Adrien Van Beveren. From that point, it was almost like a motocross race, with each rider overtaking the other, searching for the right track… it was fun. I’m happy that everybody took it in turns with the navigation; several years ago, that sort of thing didn’t happen.
