Day 2 of Dakar Rally puts France's Despres in the lead

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 4:13 p.m. ET

PISCO, Peru (AP) Frenchman Cyril Despres of Peugeot won the second round of the Dakar Rally on Sunday and took the overall lead of the race.

The third-place finisher in last year's race finished in 2 hours, 56 minutes and 51 seconds for the 195 miles (267 kilometers) around Pisco, in Peru. He finished ahead of two French teammates, with a 48-second lead on Stephane Peterhansel and 3:08 in front of Sebastien Loeb.

Qatari Nasser Al-Attiyah, who won the first round, ended nearly 15 minutes behind the leader in fifth.

Despres leads the overall classification by 27 seconds on Peterhansel.

Sunday's race was marked by a series of accidents, including one that affected American driver Bryce Menzies of Mini. Menzies was unharmed by the crash.

In the motorcycles race, Spain's Joan Barreda Bort of Honda clocked in at 2:56:44 to win the second round. France's Adrien van Beveren of Yamaha finished second once again, 2:54 back. Austria's Matthias Walkner of KTM was third, 4:24 behind the leader. Overall, Bort leads with 2:30 on Van Beveren.

In the truck race, Russian Eduard Nikolaev of Kamaz, the defending champion, won with a time of 3:24:23. He finished 3:25 ahead of Argentina's Federico Villagra. Overall, Nikolaev leads Czech Ales Loprais by 5:38.

On Monday, the Dakar Rally will move on to San Juan de Marcona, also in Peru.