Husqvarna and KTM may well be on the Dakar podium after 6 stages, but Honda has placed no less than three of its riders within less than 13 minutes. Strength in numbers has become the speciality of the winged brand and enabled it to become the world champion among constructors last year. In Rally2, Romain Dumontier continues to dominate the category and this was again the case today on the stage and in the general rankings in which he leads Paolo Lucci. In the quad category, Manuel Andújar took advantage of his stage victory to come to within 20 minutes of Pablo Copetti in the general rankings. In the car category, world champion Al Attiyah seems to be a master in the art of staying lucky. The Qatari has already put a serious option out on the top step of the podium. In addition to a healthy amount of points for overall victory for which he has high hopes, he also has three stage victories, bringing him five extra points per win. In the T3 category, like Nasser, Austin Jones retains a lead of one hour over his pursuer Seth Quintero and almost two and a half hours over world number one “Chaleco” López. In the T4 category, Rodrigo Luppi de Oliveira is controlling the return to form of current champion Rokas Baciuška who only regained 7 seconds. Finally, in the truck category, Janus Van Kasteren, the newcomer to W2RC, is still under threat from Martin Macík, who is only 4 minutes behind him in the general rankings. Title holder Kees Koolen is 3rd, 20 minutes behind.
