The Frenchman Sébastien Loeb (Prodrive), who is eager to win his first Dakar, won this Tuesday in the fourth stage of the rally rally, a stage of 332 timed kilometers that allowed the Qatari Nasser Al-Attiyah (Prodrive) to resurface, finish third and will enter the fight between the Spanish Carlos Sainz (Audi) and Jazeed Al Rajhi (Overdrive Racing) for the general classification.
The Saudi consolidated his first place overall by adding 14 seconds to Al-Attiyah, who is already third, and 3 minutes and 40 seconds over Sainz, who nevertheless maintains second position.
The fight for the general classification seems to focus in the coming days on those three drivers, the Saudi, the Qatari and the Spanish, who are less than twelve minutes apart in the general classification. However, both the Frenchman Sébastien Loeb (Prodrive), who continues dreaming of his first Touareg, and the tireless French driver Stéphane Peterhansel (Audi) and the young Brazilian Lucas Moraes (Gazoo Racing) continue trying to stalk the favorites.
This Tuesday, the Chilean José Ignacio Cornejo (Honda) stripped the Botswanan Ross Branch (Hero) of the overall lead by just 75 seconds, by winning the fourth stage of the Dakar, in which the Castellón-born Joan Barreda (Hero), the great hope Spanish on motorcycles, finished seventh, 8 minutes and 15 seconds behind the South American.
Cornejo reigned from start to finish in this short 299-kilometre special stage with a time of 2 hours, 51 minutes and 11 seconds, beating the American Ricky Brabec (Honda) by 2 min and 59 s, who secured third place. the general
Argentine Kevin Benavides (KTM) finished third, 3 minutes and 18 seconds behind Cornejo. Despite not being able to achieve the stage that he did achieve this Monday, the eldest of the Benavides, defending champion, seems to continue recovering from the fibula fracture suffered just a month ago and is already fourth overall, in which his brother Luciano (Husqvarna) is sixth.
Weighted down by penalties at the start of the Dakar, with his seventh place today he is twelfth overall. It is the great Spanish asset, although right now it is far from being able to think that it can achieve a victory in the general classification, a classification from which Spanish drivers have been withdrawing, such as the Valencian Tosha Schareina (Honda) or the Salamanca-born Lorenzo Santolino (Sherco ), which were the main bets for national motorcycling.
