Dakar day 4, and the competition is heating up
The race has reached quarter distance, but for many, it may seem like it has only started.
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Sebastien Loeb emerged victorious and mere seconds ahead of Stephane Peterhansel’s Audi, followed by Carlos Sainz Sr and Toyota Gazoo Racing SA’s overall leader, Nasser Al Attiyah.
In the motorcycle race, Joan Barreda Bort won the day, but Daniel Sanders continues to lead the bikes overall. South African FK Husqvarna rider Charan Moore leads the no-backup service Malle Moto Original class, and his teammate Mike Docherty is a very close second among the two-wheeler rookies.
Thunderstorms produced a spanner in the works for the organisers.
In the overall results, Al Attiyah headed a Toyota 1-2 over Yazeed Al Rajhi, with Stephane Peterhansel’s Audi third. South African Century drivers Brian Baragwanath and Mathieu Serradori sat fifth and sixth ahead of Giniel de Villiers’s Toyota in seventh. All four South African Red-Lined entries were still in the running, too.
Botswana’s Ross Branch came in 15th, SA rider Michael Docherty was 39th after a fall, Charan Moore 40th, Kirsten Landman 79th and Stevan Wilken 103rd. Sam Sunderland led Mason Klein and Kevin Benavides overall, with Branch 10th, Rookie leader Docherty 29th and Original leader Moore 36th.
Day 4: The battle of the giants
Wednesday’s 425 loop around Ha’il took in a bit of everything, starting in the dunes before moving onto tracks and later returning to the sand. The Dakar giants fought it out up front, as Peterhansel and Edouard Boulanger’s Audi led early on from Sebastien Loeb, Al Attiyah and Sainz Sr.
It was a tough morning for Century as Serradori and Loic Minaudier picked up a heating problem and lost an hour before teammate Baragwanath also stopped for almost 50 minutes. Things went even worse for Prodrive, as both Orlando Terranova and Vaidotas Zala’s Hunters retired.
The other two Hunters were in the thick of things, however. Loeb passed Peterhansel’s petrol-electric Audi to lead at the final waypoint. Teammate Guerlain Chicherit moved up to third from Sainz, but the second Hunter also hit trouble in the final sector, leaving Loeb to take the day in the team’s second-stage win on the trot.
Loeb beat Peterhansel by 14 seconds, as Sainz pipped Al Attiyah for third. Al Rajhi was fifth from Henk Lategan, Mattias Ekstrom and Toyota Hilux trio Lucio Moraes, Giniel de Villiers and Eric van Loon. All of which means Al Attiyah continues to lead Al Rajhi by 18 minutes overall, with Peterhansel mere seconds behind in third from Sainz, Lategan, Moraes, De Villiers and Ekstrom.
In the bike race, Sanders leads Howes by three and a half minutes with Benavides and Barreda Bort both within four minutes of the leader in third and fourth. Price follows from Klein, Pablo Quintanilla and Adrien van Beveren. Docherty was provisionally 25th overall and sat a very close second among the rookies, while Moore in 33rd, still leads the Malle Moto Original Dakar no service class. Stuart Gregory was still running in 81st at the time of writing, Landman 95th, Wilken 105th and Branch 116th.
Source: MotorsportMedia
