Tosha gave the stage to Sanders who was out of strategy and already 2nd in Dakar: head to head for the title

Tosha Schareina warned the day before. The official Honda driver said MD which is the first part of the marathon stage today, without help arriving at the bivouac Al Ulathis is a good time to attack. And so he did, to place second overall and position himself as a contender for the crown in a good battle with Daniel Sandershaving time with men like Ross branch, Quintanilla or the current champion, Brabec.

Schareina He pushed from a good starting position to win stage 4 of Dakar to try to achieve his first victory in this edition, which is his second victory in the most difficult event in the world after last year in the prologue stage. However, at the finish line, the Spaniard was left with honey on his lips, or perhaps tried a slightly different approach.

Schareina dealt with the first and complex rock area of ​​the day to push later a very different terrain, with tracks, dirt and sandto lead the middle of the special. He increased his lead to 2 minutes and 33 seconds on the overall leader, Daniel Sanders, at the penultimate checkpoint, kilometer 383 of a 415 km timed special. But it is noteworthy that in the last 32 kilometers, according to the organization’s provisional times, Tosha gave up a few minutes to the overall leader, Daniel Sanders, who took the stage from the Valencian by only 15 seconds.

Tosha stopped voluntarily before the finish line to give time for a better position at the start of the second part of the marathon stage, to continue his attack. It seems that he is not very effective in terms of times, since no one else has passed him in the stage classification and He would start 2nd on stage 5 behind Sanders, who won. And if he catches Sanders tomorrow, it will give him back more or less the time Tosha stopped today. But there is one difference: he will not open the track and give that risk to Sanders, a KTM rider who in this Dakar shows his best version.

Daniel won the prologue stage, the first and the second. He couldn’t make it in the third due to a problem with his tablet, but in the fourth special, Daniel prevailed again.

Today, Tosha is 2nd at 13’26”. Tosha prefers to let Sanders lead on stage 5, as that always means more risk and pressure.

In third position overall is Branch at 24′ 10” and Skyler Howes He was fourth in 27′ 01”. Ricky Brabec was 5th at 29′ 13”, with Van Beveren 6th in 29′ 26”, Pablo Quintanilla in 33′ 14” and Luciano Benavides in 35′. With them, everyone can win, though Sanders and Tosha They got oxygen.

Very close combat

The Dakar is long, there is still a lot left and the battle of the motorcycles is very close. The Australian seemed to be a step above everyone else, controlling the race lead well, winning when he could and managing his race well when he needed to. It is true that his history of falling is high and not to be trusted, but he is brave, more than ever. And before him, his rivals had their options full in a race where no one could save anything and where the one who fought hard by going to the limit, making the smallest possible mistake, was win the day Above all, a Schareina which is completely immersed in the ointment.

In its part, Lorenzo Santolino (Sherco), after achieving his first stage win in Dakar The day before, I had to face a difficult day opening the track and pulling the car with navigation, which was very complicated especially at the end of the stage. The man from Salamanca lost 26 minutes but will be able to attack in the second part of the marathon stage with a good starting position.

Edgar Canet, little fall

Edgar Canet maintains leadership in the category of Rally2 although with a smaller margin, being 3’24” overall vs Ebster after giving up about 6 minutes into this stage 4 where another one of his rivals, Dochertygave up a lot of time, a total of 28 minutes that took him away from the fight for the title in Rally2, which now looks like a two-man race: Edgarin his Dakar debut at the age of 19, and Ebster.

In this stage 4, Edgar He had to face three crashes while riding slowly and he had to fix his motorcycle with his own hands because it was a marathon stage and there was no help from the team mechanics. However, one of the The Garriga He seemed calm about the minor repairs he had to do on his KTM.