The revenge of Sébastien Loeb (Prodrive). After having lost all chance of winning the Dakar 2023 at the start of this edition, the French driver finally saw his efforts rewarded by winning the fourth stage of the rally-raid, contested in a loop around Ha’il (425 km of special ).
After a long undecided battle, he beat Stéphane Peterhansel’s Audi by 13 seconds. The royal podium of this long sprint saw the Spaniard Carlos Sainz also on Audi join the French duo, conceding 1’50” to the winner of the day.
Al-Attiyah strong leader
At the foot of the podium with a delay of 2’06”, the leader of the event, the Qatari Nasser Al-Attiyah, showed caution with his overall advantage. He even consolidated this on his direct pursuer, the Saudi Yazeed Al-Rajhi now at 18’18”. Stéphane Peterhansel is a solid third overall.
It should be noted that Sébastien Loeb complained of having run most of the special without power steering and estimates the loss of time at ten minutes. The stage was doubtless decided on the score of 327 km, Loeb then taking the advantage over Peterhansel, while Guerlain Chicherit, winner the day before, was blocked on the track following a mechanical incident.
Sébastien Loeb climbs back to 14th place overall but more than 1h30 behind the Qatari leader and his Toyota.