Five things we learned from stage four of Dakar 2023

Stage four was a lot kinder in terms of weather conditions, compared to yesterday’s torrent of rain and flash floods. But as we’ve seen already in this year’s event, it ain’t a picnic. Here’s what we took away from the fourth stage of Dakar 2023.

Consistency has been the key for Toby Price so far in Dakar 2023.

1. Price is still playing the cautious game, but when will he make his move?

Toby Price knows how to win the Dakar, he’s done it twice already. And with a massive Australian supporter base watching back home, there’s plenty of pressure for the Gold Coast based works KTM rider to deliver on a third outright win.

So far in this year’s race, other than the Prologue, he’s yet to win a stage or lead the event so far. But he doesn’t look too worried about it just yet. If anything, he looks rather calm and modest about his performance and that is a good thing. He’s currently fifth overall in the general classification, 7’17” behind fellow Australian and current outright leader, Daniel ‘Chucky’ Sanders.

But one question remains - when will he attack and make his move to the front? Will he wait until next week after the mandatory rest comes up or does he attack much sooner and apply the pressure on Sanders and his fellow rivals in the field? We’ll just have to wait and see what transpires.

2. Hero Motorsport have a costly day

We saw on stage two the disaster that befell the Prodrive run Bahrain Rally Xtreme outfit, as two of its entries left stranded with multiple punctures and running out spare tyres.

This kind of disaster scenario certainly doesn’t discriminate against the bike component of the race either, and it applied to the Indian based Hero Motorsport Team Rally outfit in a number of ways.

The team had three riders placed in the top 15 overall after the third stage and we’re looking to stay within reach of the front of the field. But yesterday’s rain and floods took a bit of a toll on their machines and the fuel consumption had gone up higher than they had expected and within the first 250km of the stage, both Sebastian Buhler and Ross Branch both ran out of fuel and lost a lot of time waiting to get help.

And before that happened, Joaquim Rodriguez crashed heavily at the 90 km mark and broke his left femur forcing him out of the race. He was airlifted to hospital where he required surgery. It clearly was a horror scenario for Hero, so let’s hope they can recover from this.

3. Loeb shows he’s not giving up without a fight 

French driver Sebastien Loeb reacts after winning the fourth stage of the 2023 Dakar rally around Ha'il in Saudi Arabia on January 4, 2023. (Photo by FRANCK FIFE / AFP) Source: AFP / FRANCK FIFE/AFP via Getty Images

We already know that Dakar 2023 will not be the year Sebastian Loeb will win his maiden event. But he’s not going to give up trying and yesterday’s gutsy performance is proof of that.

Being more than 90 minutes behind the current outright leader in Nasser Al-Attiyah after a disastrous performance in stages two and three, the nine times World Rally Champion knew he had nothing left to lose now and just went for it it and for once, his BRX Hunter delivered the goods as he took it up to the Toyota of Al-Attiyah and the Audis of Stephane Peterhansel and Carlos Sainz Snr.

Loeb’s stage win was narrow in the end, only 13” between himself and Peterhansel, but a win is a win and the Frenchman will take any that he can right now.

4. Finally, a trouble free day for Molly

Molly Taylor is currently 13th overall in the T4 SSV class with Andrew Short.

The triple punctures that befell Molly Taylor and Andrew Short yesterday were a big blow to their confidence, culminating three successive days of troubles for the South Racing Can-Am pair.

So we were rather happy to see that they got through yesterday’s stage virtually trouble free and into the top ten for the day, finishing tenth in the T44 SSV class. The only issues that befell them, which were minor, was being caught behind one of the trucks and not finding a way to get past for a while and then tending to one of their teammates who ran out of fuel.

In the T4 general classification, they’ve made up two spots to 13th overall, so a top ten finish is still very much a strong possibility as we near the halfway point of the event.

5. A shout out to the Schey brothers flying the Aussie flag in Classic

It’s easy to forget that there is actually a fourth crew representing Australia in this year’s event and this crew is competing in the Classic section of the rally aboard a Nissan Terrano.

Long time stalwarts of the Australian rally scene, Peter and Christopher Schey are tackling this event for the very first time, ticking off a bucket list item they’ve been wanting to do for a long time.

The Classic component of Dakar is regularity based rather than competing for time, which means all competitors in this division are competing for the fewest penalty points accrued across the event. So far, the Australian pair are sitting 41st overall after four stages, but this is more of an adventure for them and we’re pretty sure they are loving it.

Catch the fourth stage highlights tonight from 5pm AEDT on SBS and anytime on SBS On Demand.