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Today the Dakar is well into its sixth stage; exactly one year ago, on January 6 Danilo Petrucci wrote a page of motorsport history by winning the 5th stage which saw the riders involved in the Riad ring. Everything happened for Danilo that day: a crash at the start to avoid a camel, then a broken mudguard, finally a course error that took him off-road.
Nevertheless, while he was getting a replacement passport, after losing the original in the desert days before due to a crash, he found out about the stage victory, following a penalty inflicted on Price. Below is the story of that January 6, 2022, which brought the Italian flag back to the top at the Dakar.
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This time a penalty plays a bad joke on the winner of the day, namely Toby Price! Thanks to the decision of the race direction, Danilo Petrucci therefore becomes the winner of the 5th stage of the Dakar, which saw the caravan involved in the Riad ring.
So, hats off to what the KTM rider is doing in the Arabian desert, where he is surprising everyone on his first appearance. As soon as he arrived at the bivouac in the Capital, Danilo kept us informed about his day of competition:
“I can't find the words; I just don't believe it. I am the first in history to have won in MotoGP and in the Dakar. Today the day started badly, since to avoid a camel, I even overturned, breaking the mudguard and handguards. I thought it wasn't going to be my day, in fact I let Benavides go. However, at the restart I had a lot of confidence and in a technical point, with a dry river, I decided to attack, because the risk was that Sanders would get away. We then got so lost at a waypoint that we had to turn back. The last 60 km I was navigating, letting Branch pass. In the end they told me I was second, then I found out that they had given me back what I lost yesterday. I'm incredibly happy"
