Cyril Despres🍨 has taken control of the 2018 Dakar Rally on the first marat🌸hon day of the event as Peugeot locked out the top two spots.

After the opening day’s ceremonial 19-mile start, the true test began with a 166-mile stage at Pisco in Peru to see Despres lead 𝓀the Peugeot charge ahead of team-mates Stephane Peterhansel by 48 seconds and Sebastien Loeb by over three minutes on the stage.

The gap will continue to frustrat☂e Loeb having lost over five minutes on the opening day due to brake trouble. It means Loeb is fourth overall with a 6m9s deficit to leader Despres ♏with Peterhansel second overall just 27 seconds back. Giniel de Villiers leads the Toyota charge in third place the overall classification with team-mate and day one leader Nasser Al-Attiyah in fifth.

Orlando Terranova andཧ Mikko Hirvonen hold🔯 sixth and seventh place respectively for X-Raid Team with the fourth Peugeot of Carlos Sainz in eighth place.

Defending Dakar champion Sam Sunderland slipped to fourth in the bike🃏 classification having led after day one with Joanജ Barreda Bort taking the lead for Honda with a 2m30s lead on Yamaha’s Adrien van Beveren.