Image: Supplied.

Monster Energy Honda’s Joan Barreda clawed back important time by winning stage five of the 2018 Dakar Rally on Wednesday, making his way back to fourth overall on-board his CRF450 Rally.

The Dakar this year introduced a system of inverted sections, which saw the motorcycles tackle Sector A, while the cars simultaneously raced over Sector B.

The special stage that two-wheel competitors encountered for the day covered 266 kilometres before a 508-kilometre link section took the competitors to the bivouac in Arequipa.

Barreda led the stage by 10 and a half minutes from Matthias Walkner (Red Bull KTM) and Kevin Benavides (Monster Energy Honda), as overall leader Adrien van Beveren (Yamalube Yamaha Official Rally Team) was fifth. He maintains a one-minute advantage over Benavides in the rankings.

Former winner Toby Price (Red Bull KTM) was once again top of the Australians in seventh position, placing him sixth overall at this point and 10m39s from the lead. Yamalube Yamaha’s Rodney Faggotter was 20th in stage and is now 17th overall, while Scott Britnell (Grit Adventures KTM) was 62nd to sit 79th on combined times.

The Dakar now leaves Peru and enters Bolivia for the sixth stage – the last before the rest day – and it will feature 313 kilometres of special stage in a total trajectory of 760 kilometres.

Detailed results