Barreda, second in motorcycles after the ‘bonus’ to Cornejo for helping Rodrigues
MADRID, 4 Ene. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Spanish driver Carlos Sainz (Team Audi Sport) was third in the fourth stage of the 2023 Dakar Rally, played with start and finish in Ha’Il over 425 kilometers of special, and cut some time from the leader Nasser Al-Attiyah (Toyota). , while Joan Barreda (JB Team) came close to victory on motorcycles, which was his until a bonus that gave victory to Chilean Nacho Cornejo (Honda).
Carlos Sainz left behind the problems of the third stage, with two punctures and rear suspension problems, and was able to take a podium finish with his third place in this fourth stage, won by the Frenchman Sebastien Loeb (BRX) with 13 seconds ahead of his compatriot Stéphane Peterhansel, Sainz’s teammate at Audi.
The man from Madrid entered 1:50 behind Loeb after a stage in which he went from less to more and managed to climb places and recover times, until ending with a few, but morally important, 16-second margin over Qatari Al-Attiyah , who came to roll in front of the Spaniard for a good part of the route.
Now, the Toyota of the Qatari (leader of Toyota Gazzo Racing) has an advantage of 18:18 minutes over the Saudi Yazeed Al Rajhi (Overdrive Racing) in the general classification, with the French Peterhansel third at 18:52. For his part, Carlos Sainz and his co-driver Lucas Cruz occupy fourth place, at 32:55 minutes.
In motorcycles, Chilean Nacho Cornejo claimed victory in the day’s special thanks to bonusing 25:55 minutes for helping rider Joaquim Rodrigues, who had fallen, until the arrival of the medical team. A ‘bonus’ that made him surpass the Spanish Joan Barreda by almost 10 minutes, who won the special sportingly but was left without a prize.
Joan Barreda took advantage of the arrival of the sand to give gas and, despite the pain he suffers from a fractured toe on his left foot suffered in his fall in the second stage, came close to victory in the fourth special, which seemed his own to overcome ( until that bonus from the Chilean of the official Honda team) by only 16 seconds of margin to the Chilean Pablo Quintanilla (Honda).
Barreda, who assured in the previous one that he would go on the attack despite having to live with the pain of the fracture, promised with what he said and took advantage of a hard terrain but favorable to his style to prevail over the rest of the rivals (except Cornejo), and put 6:07 to the still leader, and eighth in the stage, Daniel Sanders.
The man from Torreblanca, despite everything, took advantage of the kilometers of sand to beat a Quintanilla who does wear the official Honda colors, although Barreda rides the same motorcycle from the Japanese brand. Fourth on the stage was Skyler Howes (Husqvarna).
Tenth came the Spanish Lorenzo Santolino (Sherco), just behind the leader Sanders. After the Spaniard, eleventh, came a Mason Klein (KTM) who led the stage until, with 20 kilometers to go, he had fuel problems. It cost him the victory and going down to sixth place overall.
Sanders continues to lead the motorcycle category, now with a 3:33 margin over the American Howes and 4:05 over the Argentine Kevin Benavides (KTM). Barreda gains a position and is fourth, 4:30 behind the leader. For his part, Santolino is eleventh at 28:37 minutes. All this in the absence of confirmation of the new times for Cornejo and other drivers with bonuses or sanctions.