Joan Barreda (Honda) claimed its second victory of this edition of the Dakar, in the fourth stage contested between Al Qaisumah and Riyadh, and gets fully into the fight for victory in the motorcycle category by placing 13 minutes and 12 seconds behind the leader of the general, the British Sam Sunderland (Gas Gas).
The Castellón pilot got his 29th Dakar stage win on two wheels, just four short of equaling the French record of 33 Stephane Peterhansel and Cyril Despres, dominating from kilometer 158 of the 465 with which he had the longest special stage of the 44th edition of the rally-raid.
In the previous ones, the Italian started strong Danilo Petrucci (Tech 3 KTM), who recovered from all initial problems on his Dakar debut after ten seasons in MotoGP, including a mechanical failure that forced him to say goodbye to the fight for the overall in the second stage.
Finally he finished in third position six minutes and 53 seconds behind Barreda, since the Chilean Pablo Quintanilla (Honda), second in the 2020 edition, pushed at the last two checkpoints to finish 4 ‘and 37 ”behind the Spaniard.
In the fight
He also spanish Lorenzo Santolino (Sherco) moved even closer to the leader Sunderland, who finished in seventh position, by cutting him 1’19 ”and falling behind 10 minutes and 28 seconds in the general classification.
Bad day also for the one who arrived as second classified, the French Adrien van Beveren, arriving at the end of the special at 15’5 ”from Barreda, and from the current champion, the Argentine Kevin Benavides (KTM).
Far from cutting back on the leader, he lost 7’30 ”which leaves him 25 minutes and 15 seconds behind Sunderland. Of course, still with a lot of Dakar ahead.
For its part, Barreda, in addition to chasing the record for the most stage victories in the motorcycle category, is fully involved in the fight for the final victory. After two victories out of four possible, he is making up for the 39 minutes and 48 seconds he lost on the second day of competition after, like almost all drivers, he struggled to find the penultimate checkpoint of stage 1b.
Sunderland maintains the provisional overall lead with a 3-minute lead over Austrian Matthias Walkner (Gas Gas) and a 4-minute 54-second lead over Van Beveren.
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Five first classified of the fourth stage by motorcycle:
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Joan Barreda (ESP-Honda): 4h6’6”
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Pablo Quintanilla (CHI-Honda): at 4’37 ”
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Danilo Petrucci (ITA-Tech3 KTM): A 6’53 “
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Rui Gonçalves (POR-Sherco): at 7’59”
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Lorenzo Santolino (ESP-Sherco): a 8’56”.
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