Dakar Rally Stage 4 Highlights: Key Moments & Results

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Nerimantas Jucius continues to show stable speed

Nerimantas Jucius continues to demonstrate endurance and stability. Today, he recorded the 18th result in the overall motorcycle standings. In addition, in the “Rally2” category, in which he also competes, the Lithuanian finished the day in 8th place.

Calculating the results of all four stages, Nerimantas Jucius is 17th among riders, and 7th in Rally2.

Vaidotas Žala remained in TOP3

After the incident in the third stage and the ruined result, the trio of “Nordis Team” seems to be rehabilitating. They had been in the top three all day today, had moved up to second and within a minute of the lead, but struggled in the final kilometers and dropped to third.

However, other crews also had problems, so Vaidotas Žala, Paulo Fiuza and Max van Grol jumped from the fifth place to the fourth place in the truck standings after today.

It was not possible to find out more impressions and information from the team, because the bivouac where the crews will spend the night is outside the communication zone.

There are two Lithuanians in the top three of the Dakar Classic

Karolis Raišys triumphed again in today’s stage among the historic car crews. However, another Lithuanian Ignas Daunoravičius was not far behind. He finished third.

After such excellent results, both Lithuanian crews are still in the top three of the overall “Dakar Classic” standings. Karolis Raišys takes the second place, and Ignas Daunoravičius – the third.

Mindaugas Sidabras and Ernestas Česokas are approaching the top ten

During the first 160 kilometers, the crew of Mindaugas Sidabras and Ernesto Česoks constantly balanced in the top 20 or on its border. However, in the second part of the sprint, the duo managed to keep their cool and avoid mistakes when their opponents started to suffer technical problems.

The crew that started today in 23rd place finally reached the finish line in 12th position. As the team’s driver Mindaugas Sidabras said, the result could have been a little better, but they also had to change one punctured wheel.

“The first marathon day is over and so, let’s say, without adventure. For the first hundred kilometers, we were the real kings of the dust. I already thought that the dust would never end. Later, we only broke through one lap, but I didn’t even feel where. But it was already towards the end of the speedway, at the 370th kilometer,” said Mindaugas Sidabras.

Mindaugas Sidabras and Ernestas Česokas will not be able to meet their mechanics after today, since the fourth and fifth speed sections are marathon, so the racers will spend the night in a separate camp set up by the organizers just for the participants.

Ernestas Česokas, co-driver of the “Izoton sport” team, added that today’s plan to keep the buggy healthy has been fulfilled, so tomorrow it will be necessary to bring it to the finish line. And then team mechanic Jonas Raudeliūnas will be able to take care of the equipment again.

“Today, the whole day was as if from the notes. In navigation, we gathered everything from the first time, we didn’t have any mistakes. We overtook a lot. At the end, we slowed down a bit, so maybe a couple of competitors overtook us. But after that overtaking, one stopped, the other one turned over. I think that we had the right strategy today, we endured patiently all day.

Will have to go check out the buggy now. Today, we will work for the mechanics – they showed us where to check, bring, screw. It’s good that we didn’t get into trouble and tomorrow we’ll try to be safe and reach Haila without any adventures,” said Ernest Česok.

After an excellent fourth stage of the Dakar Rally, the duo of “Izoton sport” moved up to thirteenth position in the overall standings of the SSV class. They have less than half an hour to finish in the top ten.

Gintas Petrus finally pressed the accelerator

In the first stages of the Dakar, Gintas Petrus did not surprise with his abilities, because for several days in a row his name was seen almost at the very end of the car ranking table.

However, in the fourth stage, the pilot clicked as it should and significantly raised his shares in the car standings. He finished the fourth stage not in the 70s, but in the 44th place, just a couple of minutes behind the leader of the Stock class, Rokas Baciuska.