Al-Attiyah gives up half an hour, Sanders on the attack!

The Dakar resumed on Wednesday morning, without Sébastien Loeb who was disqualified by the technical inspection carried out in the evening following his rollover and having revealed that the roll bar of his Dacia Sandrider was deformed. After the previous retirement of Carlos Sainz for the same reasons, a second major name is now missing, which left Henk Lategan leading with 7'17 ahead of Nasser Al-Attiyah at the end of the third step.

And if this Dakar has already been eventful, the prospect of now competing in the marathon stage suggested other twists and turns, with no assistance being authorized this evening. For today's special, linking Al Henakiyah to Al-'Ula, the competitors had to cross canyons and volcanic terrain, with the assurance of a technical course to tame over 415 timed km.

However, Nasser Al-Attiyah (Dacia) quickly showed worrying signs. After a solid day of navigation and management yesterday, the Qatari lost nine and a half minutes after the first hundred kilometers, forced to stop to change a wheel. Then, shortly after, he encountered other problems leading him to another stop, longer this time, at km 118.

Cristina Gutiérrez, who returned to the race after abandoning to serve as a water carrier for Dacia, came to support him, but at the next score it was a delay of more than 45 minutes that Al-Attiyah posted on the leader of the special. A mishap which immediately caused him to drop to the general position, but also pushed him to strongly attack and then gradually reduce the delay. At the finish, his pugnacity put him 33 minutes behind the best time and 29 minutes behind the overall leader.

Far from these worries, it was Yazeed Al-Rajhi (Toyota) who dominated this special from the first score, taking advantage of a good starting position after losing his place on the provisional podium yesterday. The Saudi raced throughout the day to finish with the best time ahead of Henk Lategan (Toyota), and climbed to second place overall.

As for Mattias Ekström (Ford), he initially lost time, before taking advantage of the Al-Attiyah stop to confirm his place on the provisional podium. However, his delay is more than doubled this evening and he sees the Frenchman Mathieu Serradori (Centuri) come back strongly behind him.

This day did a lot of damage in the top 10 and beyond. Thus, Guillaume de Mevius, comfortable yesterday, lost almost an hour on the winner of the day, as did Seth Quintero, while Joao Ferreira gave up around forty minutes. And what about Saood Variawa? Yesterday's young winner lost three quarters of an hour. As for the Price-Sunderland duo, sixth last evening, they are stationary and waiting for assistance.

Provisional general classification Cars

Motorcycles – Sanders slaps the Howes-Branch-Brabec trio

Daniel Sanders (KTM) returned to the road this morning with a 6'51 lead over Skyler Howes (Honda) and 6'59 over Ross Branch (Hero), following a correction to his time on Tuesday evening . His mishaps with his navigation system also had the effect of giving him an advantageous starting position today.

It was Mason Klein (Kove) who first took the reins of the special, he who is at the bottom of the classification after a mechanical problem which occurred in the 48H stage. But what immediately became obvious was that Sanders was going to take advantage of this day to widen his lead over his closest pursuers in the general standings. The Australian fought hard and continued to consolidate his leadership overall.

Over time, Tosha Schareina (Honda) gained strength, to the point of taking control of the special in Klein. The Spaniard, however, relaxed his effort in the final, ceding victory to Sanders by 15 seconds with the clear aim of not opening tomorrow. His solid performance, however, allows him to play a good role since he moves from fifth to provisional second place, while Sanders nevertheless doubles his lead.

The leader gains 20 minutes on a hard-pressed trio: Branch (who remains third), Howes (who loses two places) and Ricky Brabec, the latter who got a big scare in the final but remains in the top 5. Behind them we find Adrien Van Beveren (Honda). On the podium last year, the Frenchman thought he lost everything in a fall yesterday before getting back on track: fourth today, he climbed to sixth overall.

The marathon stage will continue on Thursday with a 428 km special and will be followed by a rest day before the Dakar enters the Empty Quarter.

Provisional general classification Motorcycles

The most beautiful photos of the 4th stage of the Dakar