Desert winds and inhospitable terrain have failed to halt Laurence Noble as he takes part in the gruelling Dakar Rallye.

Nearly 500 cars, motorbikes and trucks carrying nearly 1,000 competitors kicked off this the 25th rally on January 1 in the southern French port city of Marseille.

The trek through Europe and the North African sands of Tunisia, Libya and Egypt ends in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm El Sheikh on January 19.

Noble, who is insurance company Aon's vice-president of information technology, is tackling the event on a Honda XR650 motorcycle in the Super Production group.

After the fifth stage of the event - Tozeur to El Borma in Tunisia - the 45-year-old Englishman is in 157th place out of the 159 bikes still running.

The 285km stage, over hard rocks and sandy terrain, was the first real test of the rally after a long ferry crossing from Spain to Africa and a short special on Sunday before heading into the desert dunes.

Noble's highest ranking was 138th in Stage Four between the Tunisian capital Tunis and Tozeur.

Defending champion Hiroshi Masuoka of Japan took the lead in the event from team-mate Stephane Peterhansel yesterday.

Masuoka, driving a Mitsubishi, finished ahead of Frenchman Peterhansel, trying to win the event on four wheels after six motorcycle titles, two minutes and 20 seconds behind.

France's Richard Sainct won the stage in the motorcycle category, 17 seconds faster than Italian Fabrizio Meoni and more than three minutes clear of Spain's Nani Roma, to lead Meoni in the overall standings by 2 minutes 25 seconds.

Russia's Vladimir Tchaguine, driving a Kamaz, took the lead in the truck category with a one minute 21 second advantage over Czech driver Karel Lopris in a Tatra.