The Spanish motorcycle rider Carles Falcón was flown to hospital with serious injuries after he crashed near the end of Sunday’s second stage of the Dakar Rally in the deserts of Saudi Arabia.
The race director, David Castera, told reporters Falcón, an experienced off-road rider, had lacked a pulse but was resuscitated by the first doctor to arrive on the scene.
Falcón, riding for the Twintrail Racing Team, was 76th after Saturday’s opening stage. The second stage, raced over jagged rocks and winding sand dunes in the Saudi desert, was almost complete when Falcón suffered the accident.
“Immediately notified by another racer who was following him, the organisation dispatched a medical helicopter which took care of the injured motorcyclist in a condition considered serious. He was airlifted to Al-Duwadimi hospital,” the race organiser, ASO, said.
The French veteran Stéphane Peterhansel took the 50th car stage win of his record-breaking Dakar career as familiar names moved back into the reckoning and Spain’s Carlos Sainz took over at the front for Audi.
Peterhansel, known as “Monsieur Dakar” after 14 overall victories on two wheels and four between 1991 and 2021, finished the stage from Al Henakiyah to Al Duwadimi 29 seconds clear of compatriot and nine times world rally champion Sebastien Loeb.
The stage win was the 83rd of Peterhansel’s career across two- and four-wheeled categories and the Audi driver now shares the car record with the Finnish great Ari Vatanen. The 58-year-old moved up to ninth overall. The three times Dakar winner Sainz, 61, was eighth fastest on the 463km stage.
Saudi Arabia’s Yazeed Al-Rajhi slotted into second place overall in his Toyota, one minute and 51 seconds behind the Spaniard, with Loeb moving up from 19th to third with four minutes and 17 seconds to make up.
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The defending champion, Nasser Al-Attiyah of Qatar, was fourth on the stage, ending up seventh overall and more than 12 minutes off the lead.