South African driver Henk Lategan won the fifth stage of the Dakar Rally on Thursday as three-time champion Nasser al-Attiyah retained his overall lead.
Lategan claimed his first Dakar stage win in his Toyota, finishing one minute and 58 seconds quicker than nine-time world rally champion Sebastien Loeb.
Lategan said a door of his car broke just 10km into the 421km stage, while he also suffered a puncture.
“I still don’t believe it,” he said. “I’m not sure what happened. We’ve honestly had a day from hell...
“It started 10 kilometres from the start when my door broke. It went open and I was driving until the first control point with the door flapping open. Then I managed to solve that, I strapped myself in and couldn’t open the door.