Santosh crashes out; Mena, Rodrigues clear stage 5 of Dakar

Indian rider CS Santosh crashed out in the fifth stage of the 41st edition of the Dakar Rally even as his Hero MotorSports teammates Oriol Mena and Joaquim Rodrigues dished out gritty performances to reach the finishing line on an incident-filled day, here.

The stage 5 of Dakar 2019 turned out to be an extremely tough and dangerous day for the competitors, claiming its fair share of casualties on Friday.

Santosh suffered a nasty crash between the waypoint 4 and 5, scuttling his chances to pursue the stage further.

The crash brought a premature end to Santosh's attempt to conquer a record fifth Dakar by an Indian.

According to last received reports, his condition is stable and is currently being attended to by the medical team at a hospital in Tacna.

Not just Santosh, his teammates Mena and Rodrigues too had a rough outing with both crashing once in the stage.

Mena's crash was quite bad as he lost his bearings for some time after the crash, but miraculously made it to the finish ...