Dakar Rally: French pair Metge and Peterhansel win stage ten

Frenchman Michael Metge won stage 10 of the 2017 Dakar Rally on Thursday.

The Honda rider covered the 449 kilometre timed special between Chilecito and San Juan in Argentina in five hours and 48 minutes.

Spain’s Joan Barreda was second following the day’s test.

Also riding a Honda – he crossed over at 55 seconds.

Slovakia’s Stefan Svitko rounded out the stage ten podium on his KTM.

Svitko was one minute and 19 seconds behind the day’s winner.

Britain’s Sam Sunderland retained his position at the summit of the overall motorbike standings.

The KTM rider now holds a 30 minute lead over Austrian Matthias Walkner after Pablo Quintanilla suffered a crash was taken to hospital.

Overall race leader Sebastien Loeb was declared the provisional winner of the stage in the car category.

But he had to give up that position to multiple Dakar champion Stephane Peterhansel who was able to reclaim the time he lost when he sportingly helped an injured motorbike competitor he had crashed into.

Peterhansel, who is hunting a 13th Dakar title, led an all French Peugeot 1-2-3 with Loeb in second and Cyril Despres coming home third.

Eduard Nikolaev from Russia steered his Kamaz to victory in the trucks class.