Petrucci continued his strong start to his rally-raid career with a provisional second place on Thursday’s stage, a 346km loop around Riyadh, finishing four minutes, 14 seconds behind fellow KTM man Price.
However, it was subsequently announced that Price had been handed a six-minute penalty for speeding, handing Petrucci his first Dakar stage win in just his fifth attempt.
With Price dropping to sixth on the stage after his penalty, Yamaha’s Ross Branch moves up to second, followed by Honda pair Pablo Quintanilla and Jose Ignacio Cornejo, and another impressive KTM rookie, American Mason Klein.
Petrucci’s stage win followed a day on from a strong ride to third place on Wednesday’s fourth stage of the rally, albeit he was also awarded a 10-minute penalty for speeding that dropped him to 15th.
However, the Italian’s hopes of figuring strongly in the fight for overall honours were effectively ruined on Monday, when he suffered a problem on the second stage that he couldn’t fix…
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