Dakar Stage 4: Peugeot show

Stephane Peterhansel

The Peugeot armada dealt a huge blow to its rivals at the end of an amazing first half of the marathon stage. Stephane Peterhansel won ahead of teammates Carlos Sainz and Sebastien Loeb. Nasser Al-Attiyah (Mini) finished in fourth place, preventing Cyril Despres from completing the Lion's whitewash by 57 seconds. In the motorcycle category, Paulo Goncalves (Honda) finished behind Joan Barreda, but he was named the victor after his team leader was again caught speeding and penalized. The Portuguese rider also moved to the top spot in the classification.

What a day! It was clear from the first checkpoint of the special that the Peugeot armada was looking to strike its rivals hard. Al-Attiyah (Mini) and Loeb were neck-and-neck, but Peterhansel beat both of them in the first sector. The next checkpoint saw the record holder extend his margin to just over a minute on Loeb, with Sainz climbing up to sixth place. The Spaniard continued his resurgence in the penultimate sector and finished behind his two teammates. After turning in a monster performance in the final sector, Sainz came within 11 seconds of a Peterhansel in top shape. Loeb came in third, 27 seconds back.

Al-Attiyah 4th today

The display of authority would have turned into a full-blown rout had Al-Attiyah (Mini) failed to beat Despres to fourth place, but any lingering doubts about the all-round performance of the Peugeot DKR 2008 have been smashed to pieces. Just one question remains: how reliable is the car? The final 642 km of the first marathon stage will tell tomorrow.

In the motorcycle category, Joan Barreda's failure to learn from yesterday's mistake ruined what was otherwise an awe-inspiring ride. The official Honda rider seized the lead at CP1 and racked up one fastest time after the other. Goncalves, his teammate, was the only one who managed to keep up with the winner. Unfortunately for the Spaniard, he was caught speeding again, costing him the stage win and the overall lead. The 5-minute penalty pushes him to third position, behind Argentina's Benavides.

Argentinean Marcos Patronelli, a two-time winner in the quad category, was untouchable today, leading from start to finish and claiming the win by 16 seconds over Alexis Hernandez. Chile's Ignacio Casale remains in the overall lead with a margin of over 12 minutes on the closest chaser, Brazilian Marcelo Medeiros.

Gerard de Rooy won the truck stage. Iveco's Flying Dutchman beat fellow countrymen Versluis and Stacey, the latter of whom lost the overall lead to Versluis after receiving a 2-minute penalty.

Stephane Peterhansel: "The stage was quite quick with lots of straights that were flat out, and some fun technical sections as well. It was also a stage at high altitude, where we weren't particularly competitive last year. On the whole we kept everything clean with no navigational mistakes, and with a mind toward tomorrow's stage as welll when it came to looking after the car and the tyres. We're ready now for the second part of the marathon stage but the gaps are small. Today resulted in a stage win for us, but this also means that we open the road tomorrow. Sebastien is in a good place. He will start from third on the road and he'll have our tracks to follow. But you never know how things will go during the actual race. We're going to be driving without any information about the splits. In any case, it's certainly going to be interesting."

2016 Dakar Rally Stage Four Results Top-5
CARS
1. Stephane Peterhansel (FRA) 03:42:42
2. Carlos Sainz (ESP) +00:00:11
3. Sebastien Loeb (FRA) +00:00:27
4. Nasser Al-Attiyah (QAT) +00:04:57
5. Cyril Despres (FRA) +00:05:44

BIKES
1. Paulo Goncalves (POR) 04:07:19
2. Ruben Faria (POR) +00:02:35
3. Kevin Benavides (ARG) +000:02:37
4. Joan Barreda (ESP) +00:03:11
5. Toby Price (AUS) +00:04:01

TRUCKS
1. Gerard de Rooy (NLD) 03:58:16

2. Pieter Versluis (NLD) +00:00:37
3. Hans Stacey (NLD) +00:01:18
4. Federico Villagra (ARG) +00:01:46
5. Eduard Nikolaev (RUS) +00:03:32

QUADS
1. Marcos Patronelli (ARG) 05:09:15
2. Alexis Hernandez (PER) +00:00:16
3. Ignacio Casale (CHL) +00:00:25
4. Alejandro Patronelli (ARG) +00:03:49
5. Mohamed Abu Issa (QAT) +00:04:12

2016 Dakar Rally Overall Standings Top-5
CARS
1. Sebastien Loeb (FRA) 09:44:51
2. Stephane Peterhansel (FRA) +00:04:48
3. Nasser Al-Attiyah (QAT) +00:11:09
4. Leeroy Poulter (ZAF) +00:12:31
5. Carlos Sainz (ESP) +00:13:04

BIKE
1. Paulo Goncalves (POR) 10:35:17
2. Kevin Benavides (ARG) +00:02:17
3. Joan Barreda (ESP) +00:03:03
4. Stefan Svitko (SVK) +00:05:22
5. Ruben Faria (POR) +00:05:24

TRUCKS
1. Pieter Versluis (NLD) 10:02:34
2. Hans Stacey (NLD) +00:00:15
3. Federico Villagra (ARG) +00:02:04
4. Gerard de Rooy (NLD) +00:04:59
5. Ayrat Mardeev (RUS) +00:09:27

QUADS
1. Ignacio Casale (CHL) 12:11:20
2. Marcelo Medeiros (BRA) +00:12:06
3. Alejandro Patronelli (ARG) +00:13:52
4. Alexis Hernandez (PER) +00:15:45
5. Marcos Patronelli (ARG) +00:17:50