RIYADH, Jan. 9 (Xinhua) -- American driver Mitch Guthrie claimed his second stage win in the Ultimate class of the Dakar Rally on Thursday.
Guthrie completed the return leg of the marathon stage just four seconds behind Nani Roma, but the Spaniard was hit with a penalty of one minute and 10 seconds. The two took the top two places, with another Raptor driven by Martin Prokop completing the day's podium.
In the motorbike category, Argentina's Luciano Benavides set the fastest time over the 356 kilometers of the special, climbing into the top three of the overall rankings, 5 minutes 55 seconds behind his Red Bull KTM Factory Racing teammate Daniel Sanders.
Sanders took advantage of the route to Hail to regain the overall lead after finishing third in the stage, 5 minutes 50 seconds behind Benavides. The special also enabled two other riders to put in their best performances of the week: Nacho Cornejo took second place on his Hero, 3 minutes 51 seconds behind Benavides, while Bradley Cox finished 7 minutes 22 seconds behind the leader in fourth place.
In Rally2, France's Neels Theric won the race, followed by Poland's Konrad Dabrowski, while Preston Campbell of the United States finished third. ■
