After only registering late for this edition of the Dakar, Joan Barreda has just pipped everybody at the post on completion of the day’s special. “Bang Bang” has beaten Pablo Quintanilla by 16 seconds. Skyler Howes has taken advantage of his 3’35’’ of bonuses to climb onto the third step of the day’s podium.
The fourth stage of the Dakar took place at altitude, with a profile that never dropped below 800 metres and sometimes climbed up to 1,300 metres. The cool weather accompanied the riders, drivers and crews on this 425 km long loop to the west of Ha'il. The previous day’s rain significantly changed the nature of the terrain, but not the beauty of the canyons and plateaux visited by the route of the day’s special.
Tricky navigation in places was one of the challenges as were the dunes that made a plentiful appearance on the day’s programme. They were expertly managed by Joan Barreda.
The hunt for stage victories is a speciality that requires, if not luck, then at least opportunism. The scenario throughout the day’s stage indeed seemed to point towards Mason Klein, who has been impressive since the beginning of this 45th edition and lived up to his phenomenal potential during most of the day.
Spending a long time as one of the openers, the kid performed the task like a battle-hardened pro, picking up the best intermediate times with authority and without complex.
However, approximately fifty kilometres from the finishing line, the American was hindered by a fuel pump problem. This setback prevented Klein from picking up his second stage victory, but his tenth placed finish on the day was not detrimental to his still advantageous position in the general rankings: 6th, but only 10’05’’ behind Daniel Sanders, who still leads the rally.
The misfortune of some makes for the happiness of others and Joan “Bang Bang” Barreda, even with a broken big toe, grabbed the 29th special of his career, as he lies in wait ready to pounce and obtain a place on the final podium for the very first time… But he still has to negotiate 10 stages.
Like last year, GasGas can only count on one of its riders alone to win the first leg in 2023. This year, it is Daniel Sanders and, despite a day when he was less consistent than the others, he still leads the general rankings. In the Rally 2 class, the race to succeed Mason Klein seems to be a duel between his runner-up last year Romain Dumontier (HT Rally Husqvarna Racing) and Paolo Lucci (BAS World KTM Racing) since Bradley Cox exited the rally early due to injury.
The Italian triumphed today, but the Frenchman remains in charge of the general rankings ahead of the Italian. In the quad race, the arrival this season of Manuel Andújar, who won the Dakar in 2021, is sowing seeds of doubt in the protagonists of season 1, namely Laisvydas Kancius and Pablo Copetti. The Argentinean currently leads the W2RC rankings.
Joaquim Rodrigues was taking part in his 7th consecutive Dakar rally. We are obliged to use the past tense, because the Hero Motosports rider exited the Dakar prematurely with a fractured leg after 90 km of the day’s special, making it his third withdrawal since 2017. J-Rod was the hero of the Indian constructor, the man who ensured the brand their first victory on the Dakar on stage 3.
This was not the only mishap for Hero, because Sebastian Bühler ran out of fuel before Ross Branch got bogged down with unending mechanical repairs. Only Franco Caimi managed to emerge unscathed, finishing 17th, a little less than twenty minutes behind Joan Barreda. The Argentinean is 13th in the general rankings, 48 minutes behind the race leader and the last chance for the team to shine in the overall race hierarchy.
ASO