Carlos Sainz, third, cuts Al-Attiyah by 16 seconds in the Dakar

Barreda wins the fourth stage in motorcycles and rises to fourth place overall

The Spanish driver Carlos Sainz (Team Audi Sport) was third in the fourth stage of the 2023 Dakar Rally, played with start and finish in Ha'Il over 425 kilometers of special, and cut some time behind the leader Nasser Al-Attiyah (Toyota). , while on motorcycles Joan Barreda (JB Team) won the fourth stage despite the fact that, initially, a bonus seemed to give the victory to the Chilean Nacho Cornejo (Honda).

Carlos Sainz left behind the problems of the third stage, with two punctures and rear suspension problems, and was able to take a podium finish with his third place in this fourth stage, won by the Frenchman Sebastien Loeb (BRX) with 13 seconds ahead of his compatriot Stéphane Peterhansel, Sainz's teammate at Audi.

The man from Madrid entered 1:50 behind Loeb after a stage in which he went from less to more and managed to climb places and recover times, until ending with a few, but morally important, 16-second margin over Qatari Al-Attiyah , who came to roll in front of the Spaniard for a good part of the route.

Now, the Toyota of the Qatari (leader of Toyota Gazzo Racing) has an advantage of 18:18 minutes over the Saudi Yazeed Al Rajhi (Overdrive Racing) in the general classification, with the French Peterhansel third at 18:52. For his part, Carlos Sainz and his co-driver Lucas Cruz occupy fourth place, at 32:55 minutes.

For her part, the pilot Laia Sanz (Astara Team) was twentieth in the stage, 45 minutes behind Loeb, and continues to meet the objective of being competitive in the stages after losing all aspiration to the general classification, after giving up more than 6 hours per several breakdowns in the second stage. Her teammate, Carlos Checa, was 23rd on the stage and is 20th overall.

VICTORY ON THE FIELD AND OFFICES FOR JOAN BARREDA

In motorcycles, the Spanish Joan Barreda took advantage of the arrival of the sand to give gas and, despite the pain he suffers from a broken toe in his left foot suffered in his fall in the second stage, achieve victory in the fourth special, in the one that surpassed by only 16 seconds of margin to the also Chilean Pablo Quintanilla (Honda). It is the 30th stage victory for the Spaniard in his Dakars.

A victory confirmed by the organization after momentarily giving victory to the Chilean Nacho Cornejo, thanks to bonus 25:55 minutes for helping the pilot Joaquim Rodrigues, although finally the bonus minutes were 7:35, which did not give the Chilean the victory and yes to Torreblanca.

Barreda, who assured in the previous one that he would go on the attack despite having to live with the pain of the fracture, promised with what he said and took advantage of a hard terrain but favorable to his style to prevail over the rest of the rivals, and put 6:07 behind the still leading, and eighth in the stage, Daniel Sanders.

The man from Torreblanca, despite everything, took advantage of the kilometers of sand to beat a Quintanilla who does wear the official Honda colours, although Barreda rides the same motorcycle from the Japanese brand. Fourth on the stage was Skyler Howes (Husqvarna).

Tenth came the Spanish Lorenzo Santolino (Sherco), just behind the leader Sanders. After the Spaniard, eleventh, came a Mason Klein (KTM) who led the stage until, with 20 kilometers to go, he had fuel problems. It cost him the victory and going down to sixth place overall.

Sanders continues to lead the motorcycle category, now with a 3:33 margin over the American Howes and 4:05 over the Argentine Kevin Benavides (KTM). Barreda gains a position and is fourth, 4:30 behind the leader. For his part, Santolino is eleventh at 28:37 minutes. All this in the absence of confirmation of the times of Cornejo and other drivers with bonuses or sanctions.