Dubbed as the world’s toughest race – not to mention one of the most exciting ones too – the Dakar Rally 2023 is underway in Saudi Arabia. With Stage 4 of the rally coming to a close, here’s what the current standings look like. WRC veteran Sebastian Loeb leads the car category, finishing a whisker ahead of Stephane Peterhansel, while the bikes category is led by Joan Barreda Bort. When it comes to the overall standings however, Naseer Al-Attiyah is leading the rally in the cars category, while Daniel Sanders is the leader in the bikes category.
Stage 3 of the Dakar saw plenty of rain, and it significantly changed the nature of the terrain present on Stage 4. The weather was cooler as well, as the competitors battled it out on the 425km loop that lay to the west of Ha’il. This was a Stage that took place at altitude, ranging from 800m to 1,300m, and tricky navigation as well as the dunes were the main challenges of the stage.
The Stage took its fair share of toll on the competitors as well, with Joaquim ‘J-Rod’ Rodrigues from Hero MotoSports having to withdraw from the rally due to a fall that occurred after 90km during the special stage. Harith Noah, too, is out of the 2023 Dakar after an accident during the fourth stage.