The participants of the Dakar Rally on Wednesday were challenged by the fourth stage with a finish in the capital of Saudi Arabia, Riyadh. There were 465 measured kilometers on the program.
Martin Prokop finished 16th in Ford’s longest stage this year and dropped one position to eighth. Násir Attíja and Toyota kept the lead in the overall standings, the Czech driver loses over 73 minutes to him.
Motorcyclist Martin Michek finished 11th at KTM. The best time was recorded by the Spaniard Joan Barred on a Honda, in which the Czech racer lost over 14 minutes.
The rally ended prematurely for the experienced motorcyclist David Pabiška, who had a fall and had to be transported to the hospital.
“He is after the basic treatment, conscious and heading to the hospital for a more thorough examination. Perhaps only the ribs and the loop took it,” the representatives of the Slovak Amber Team said on Facebook. Pabiška started on the thirteenth Dakar.
Attíja experienced a day full of four on Wednesday: in the 4th stage of the 44th year of the rally, he celebrated his 44th stage victory. However, he was also helped by the additional two-minute penalty of Yazid Rajhi from Saudi Arabia, who dropped to fifth place because of it. Attíja strengthened his lead slightly, defeated the second Sébastien Loeb from France by 25 seconds and is well over 38 minutes overall.
Prokop lost to the first place 18:40 minutes. “It was quite an interesting stage, even though it was extremely fast, especially after the start. We survived one difficult moment when we drove a little off the track and flew into huge holes. It threw us a lot there,” said the Benzina Orlen Team driver.
Michek did not hide his fatigue in the goal of the “erzeta”. “It took off, really very fast stage. I kept full throttle until the last moment, I drove a maximum of 165 km / h several times,” said the driver of the Orion-Motor Racing Group team,
“Now I have to cross and go to bed for a while. We still have about 140 kilometers to the bivouac and today we will cover a total of 800 kilometers, which is really a rocket,” added the rider, who moved up to 21st place overall.
Sam Sunderland from Great Britain remains at the top of the motorcycle competition on a Gas Gas machine. Mattihias Walkner with KTM and Adrien van Beveren in the Yamaha saddle are in second place with a loss of three minutes.
An unconventional look. This is how the Dakar Rally journalists see along the track Video: Buggyra
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