Peterhansel on the dunes with a Yamaha R1

Stéphane Peterhansel – living legend of the Dakar Rally with 6 wins on two wheels (all of which with Yamaha) and 4 wins in the car class – was getting a little bored while waiting for the next edition of the famous rally raid, hence he decided to go out for a spin with his Yamaha YZF-R1.

The thing is, he did that in the desert.
Even though it’s been a few years since Peterhansel was the ruler of motorcycle racing on the dunes, the Frenchman obviously still has it: riding an R1 with special tyres on the sandy hills of Merzouga, Morocco, Peterhansel showed off his skills for a special issue of French magazine L’Integral, and here are a few pics documenting his performance.

It goes without saying that the desert is not the kind of habitat that the R1 designers had in mind for their baby, but with a top-notch specialist like Peterhansel on board, even the awesome road-racer from the three diapason house can make the right impression.