Stage Four of the Dakar Rally

Before going into the results for the fourth stage of the Dakar Rally, a quick summary of withdrawals over the last few days.

Yesterday we went over the surprising withdrawal of two time quad class winner and leader of the class entering stage three, Argentine Marcos Patronelli. Portugal lost two favorites to get a win. Stage one winner in the car class Carlos Sousa withdrew prior to the start of stage three. After winning stage one, he finished 97th in stage two after turbo problems. Portugal's other blow was the withdrawal of Ruben Faria during the third stage. Faria finished second last year in the Dakar Rally and was sixth overall after stage two, only seven minutes and eighteen seconds back of Joan Barreda Bort.

Another winner from stage one has withdrawn and that would be truck class winner, Russian Ayrat Mardeev who had an accident on stage two.

Americans Peter Hardy (bikes) and Peter Harjas (car) both withdrew after stage two.

In stage four, Carlos Sainz became the fourth different stage winner in the car class and became the fourth different leader of the car class overall. Sainz finished six minutes and four seconds ahead of Stéphane Peterhansel with Peterhansel's Mini teammate Nasser Al-Attiyah finished third, eight minutes and fifty-eight seconds back. Argentine Federico Villagra finished fourth thirteen minutes and nineteen second back with Nani Roma finishing fifth, fourteen minutes and eights seconds back of Sainz.

Sainz has a two minute and six second gap over Roma with Al-Attiyah third, six minutes and fifty-six seconds back. Orlando Terranova drops to fourth, thirteen minutes and eight seconds back with Peterhansel moving up to fifth, eighteen minutes and ten seconds back.

Robby Gordon finished fourteenth, forty-two minutes and sixteen seconds back. He is four hours sixteen minutes and twenty-three seconds back of Sainz overall in thirty-first place. BJ Baldwin finished the day twenty-fifth, an hour and five minutes and thirty-three seconds back. Baldwin is forty-seventh overall, seven hours one minute and fifty-nine seconds back of Sainz.

Spaniard Juan Pedrero Garcia won the bike class on stage four, defeating Chilean Francisco López Contardo by twenty-nine seconds. Marc Coma finished third for the second consecutive stage, three minutes and ten seconds back. Jeremías Israel finished fourth, his best finish stage finish to date with Olivier Pain and Joan Barreda Bort rounding out the top six, thirteen minutes and fifty-six seconds back.

Barreda Bort remains the bike class leader by three minutes and ten seconds over Coma. Loópez Contardo moves up to third from fifth, five minutes and twelve second back. Alain Duclos remains in fourth for a fourth consecutive stage but is twenty-five minutes and fifty-five seconds back. He is ahead of fellow Frenchmen Olivier Pain and defending winner of the Dakar in the bike class Cyril Despres. Despres drops from second after finishing forty-two minutes and nine seconds over the stage winning Sherco of Pedrero Garcia.

Gérard de Rooy appears to have another truck stage victory in this edition of the Dakar Rally after defeating stage three winner Russian Andrey Karginov by a minute and thirty-one seconds. Eduard Nikolaev finished third, nine minutes and four seconds back. De Rooy extended his overall lead in the class to thirty-six minutes and twelve seconds ahead of fellow Dutchman Marcel van Vilet. Karginov is third, forty minutes and forty-one seconds back. Karginov is fourth, fifty-seven minutes and three seconds back after a five minute penalty.

Chilean Ignacio Casale is the first to reach the finish line for the quad class. He does so in seven hours fifteen minutes and thirty-one seconds. He finished twelve minutes and five seconds ahead of Sebastian Husseini, thirteen minutes and thirty-three seconds ahead of Sergio Lafuente and fifteen minutes and forty-five seconds ahead of Rafeł Sonik.

With the victory, Casale takes a nine minute and thirty-five second lead over Sonik, thirteen minute and fourteen second lead over Husseini and fourteen minute and forty-nine second lead over Lafuente.