Instead of 188 kilometers, selective section of the day between Korla and Ruoqiang was only 75. It’s on a sprint that Yangui Liu and his codriver He Sha win the stage. In bike category, Armand Monleón is now in the back wheel of his rival Min Ji Fang.
Stage 5 has not modified the overall classification in car and bike category. However it let us to see some very interesting concerns for the second week of the race.
On fast and very dusty tracks, Yangui Liu and He Sha on their Mitsubishi T600 of Panda Motorsport Team have won the stage. Second yesterday, and then first today, Yangui Liu shows once again all his abilities in driving in the sand. The cross of Taklimakan desert started today should give him the opportunity to win few stages from today to the end of the rally in Aksu on Sunday May 29th.
Second of the day and 25 seconds behind the winner, Han Wei and Jean-Pierre Garcin did not have any car issue. The HanWei Motorsport yellow buggy has lived a quite easy day, one of the most relaxing since the start according to the chinese driver who even did not forget to enjoy the landscapes.  
The third place is for Kun Liu and Pan Hongyu, another crew of Panda Motorsport team, always very regular.
Eleventh this morning at the start of the selective section, Philippe Gache, HanWei Motorsport buggys builder, and Stéphane Prévot could not overtaken car number 163 Shichen Zang and Yicheng Wang because of the dust. Crew number 129 finishes fifth. Overall classification does not change. Han Wei and Jean-Pierre Garcin are now ten more second ahead the second Kun Liu et Pan Hongyu.
Statu quo in car category, competitors becoming closer in bike category.  First to go into Taklimakan desert this morning, Armand Monleón on his KTM 450 Factory Replica of RedBull teams continues to push hard and get his third victory in a row.
Even though he gave everything to maintain the gap, Min Ji Fang, his main rival to final victory, can only notice than the Spanish is catching him up. Second of the stage, right behind the Jincheng of Zhou Tian, his lead of one hour at the evening of the second stage has been reduced at seven minutes now, while difficulties should keep growing in the next following days.   
Tomorrow on Sunday May 22nd,   86 cars and 9 bikes still taking part to 2016 Taklimakan Rally will cross the first dunes.
According to people who get used to this desert, dunes are very tricky and competitors cannot afford to make a mistake or they could stay long hours stucked.

Press: Taklimakan Rally