2016 Dakar Rally – Stage 4: Big Red Rises

Stage 4 of the 2016 Dakar Rally saw competitors racing mostly in a 420km loop near Jujuy, Argentina. Stage 4 is also the start of the marathon stage of the Dakar Rally, where this year team mechanics and competitors are forbidden from working on their machines, until the next day’s liaison section.

Always a decisive moment, it means that riders especially need to ensure no harm comes to their race motorcycles over the course of the stage, as they will not have the benefit of their support crews.

In that way, concentration is very much a key element to winning The Dakar, which as a segue, is something HRC rider Joan Barreda is learning the hard way.

Despite being the fastest man on Stage 4, another speeding penalty on the liaison section means that Barreda had five minutes tacked onto his time for the day, which drops him to third overall. With his pace in the special section, Barreda should be leading this edition of The Dakar, but the unforced errors are costing him.

Meanwhile, teammate Paulo Gonçalves continues to benefit from Barreda’s mistakes, and thus gets the stage win after the times for Stage 4 were tallied.

“The stage went pretty well. It was a long special at more than 400 kilometres with a very high average speed,” said Gonçalves. “There wasn’t a lot of navigation but I was in doubt at one point and I lost a few seconds.

“We arrived without any problems and everything will be ready to set off tomorrow for the second part of the marathon stage. The teamwork has been excellent: to arrive here with everything in order, in a stage like this one, is perfect,” Gonçalves finished.

For KTM, both Antoine Meo and Toby Price put in strong performances, finishing the day 5th and 6th respectively. They will need to up their game though, in order to answer Honda’s challenge – if they plan on being the 2016 Dakar Rally champions, that is.

Currently, Stefan Svitko is the top-billed KTM rider, fourth overall. That position is quite the achievement for the non-factory rider. Hopefully the KTM bosses are taking note of the Slovakian’s results.

While the KTM Factory Racing team languishes, the Husqvarna team is making progress. Ruben Faria finished third on Stage 4, which bumps him now up to fifth overall on the standings. At only eight minutes back, the Portuguese rider is still very much in the hunt for the rally win.

Unfortunately, Stage 4 proved to be the end of the 2016 Dakar Rally for Husqvarna rookie Pela Renet, who crashed with just 29km left on the course and had to be admitted into the hospital. The Frenchman had shown good promise so far in the rally, as you would expect from an Enduro champion. Look for him again, next year.

As for Yamaha Racing, the team continues to languish outside the Top 10, with its factory riders still battling injury and illness. The best the team could muster in Stage 4 was an 11th by Adrien Van Beveren, who was racing in his first marathon stage.

With tonight being the second half of the marathon stage, riders will not be able to service their machines until tomorrow’s liaison stage, which could play a decisive role in the 2016 Dakar Rally’s outcome.