He did his thing again, although the teams’ unassisted marathon hit some more than others once the accounts were done. The South African Henk Lategan, new overall leader with his Toyota, was the real winner on the overall scoreboard of stages 4 and 5, even though he lost 12 minutes to the winner of the day at the Hail finish line, the American Mitch Guthrie. With a time of 3h54m46s, the Ford driver snatched the victory at the last moment from his teammate Nani Roma, penalized with one minute at the finish line and finally second at one minute and six seconds in the 372 kilometer special.
Who did not manage to benefit as much as he would have liked from the ‘yo-yo’ of winning one day and opening without a trace the next, happy despite having suffered several mechanical problems that forced him to save both days. Although a couple of bad days and the constant rattling of the stones bothered him more than necessary, the man from Madrid held on in the general standings of the Dakar after being towed by the winner of the day to the bivouac. The Ford driver, at 63 years old, remains within striking distance of his fifth crown in the event, eight and a half minutes behind the leader.
Lategan started the marathon on Wednesday almost 15 minutes behind the leader, and Nasser Al-Attiyah 11. The Qatari from Dacia is now second, 3m17s behind the South African in the table. Sainz, on the other hand, was then three and a half minutes behind and reached the finish line in Hail from the lead in this edition. Despite minimizing the 27-minute blood loss of stage 4, the man from Madrid was unable to advance normally through the desert due to a major breakdown in his Ford Raptor, with clutch and reliability problems. “Today we won the lottery, being here is very good news between the issue of the clutch and another related to the oil pump,” explained the Madrid native, who crossed sixth, 5m23s behind the winner. “Halfway through the stage, when the alarm went off, despite the accumulated suffering.
From their team, they stressed that they really feared Sainz’s abandonment in what could be his last Dakarian dance. Hence the general relief. In the middle of nowhere, and without assistance from the mechanics, co-pilot Lucas Cruz struggled throughout Wednesday night to try to overcome the problems with the embargo. The couple spent until eleven at night doing repairs on the vehicle, and fortunately they lasted long enough to cross the finish line. Today will be another long night in the Ford tent, where they have dismantled the entire engine in order to leave it like new for this Friday’s stage.
“It has been a stressful day, with several engine temperature alarms, GPS problems, so it has been complicated. It is the nature of the race, with comings and goings, but we are very happy to be where we are,” said Roma, whose provisional stage victory lasted a few minutes before being sanctioned by the FIA for speeding. The Folgueroles driver, winner of one edition on a motorcycle and another by car, rises to fourth place overall, seven minutes behind the leader.
Daniel Sanders regains the lead in motorcycles
On motorcycles, KTM’s Argentine Luciano Benavides took the fifth stage with a time of 4h05m16s, while Tosha Schareina (Honda) choked at the opening of the second part of the marathon and lost nine minutes at the finish line. The blow was greater once in the bivouac. There, the FIM stewards informed the Valencian that they were imposing a 10-minute penalty for not crossing the start time control of the special in the lane marked by the organization.
The lead was masterfully recovered during the day’s route by Daniel Sanders, current champion of the test, thanks to his third place in the special, six minutes behind the winner. The KTM Australian now has a little more than two minutes of margin over the American Ricky Brabec (Honda) in the general classification, while Schareina sinks from the head of the race to fourth position, almost 12 minutes behind his biggest rival for victory. Benavides inherits the third place on the podium, more than five minutes away.
Canet misses the general train
Edgar Canet, who dazzled with two stage victories as soon as the race began, lost his chances in the general classification around 11 in the morning in Saudi Arabia. At kilometer 240, the rear tire of his KTM said enough and forced the 20-year-old to improvise a solution to his problems in the middle of the desert. The Catalan had been leading the day and was fourth overall in the rally, but he spent an hour repairing the mousse, the padding that motorcycle tires provide to prevent punctures, and was still trying to return to the bivouac to continue in the race.
On the eve of the rest day in Riyadh, participants will enter the dunes and sand of the Qasim region, one of the favorite destinations for off-road lovers, in a 331-kilometer special with a tortuous 589-kilometer link to the hotel.
