Dakar 2024: Cornejo wins Stage 4 and moves into the lead

After yesterday’s challenging stage 3, the final result of which didn’t come until a few hours after its conclusion, the 2024 Dakar riders have had no time to rest. Today’s stage was in fact the second part of a Marathon and teams were able to work on the bike for just two hours before going into a parc fermé regime. Having spent the night in tents, the racers set off for Al-Hofuf, with the fourth special stage of 299 km won by José Ignacio Cornejo Florimo.

The Honda rider takes his second stage win of the year (his eighth career win) but also moves into the lead in the general standings, now lying 1'12'' ahead of Ross Branch, after the team Hero MotoSports rider finished fourth overall in the special. Finishing right behind Cornejo was his team-mate Ricky Brabec and KTM rider Kevin Benavides, who did well to exploit the time adjustment received for having opened the stage.

Gonçalves the surprise of the day

Once again, some of the favourites struggled more than expected; Toby Price closed 15 minutes from the front, and Pablo Quintanilla 18, just like Daniel Sanders. One rider who had no issues was Rui Gonçalves, the Portuguese rider proving to be the surprise of the day as he closed eighth aboard the Sherco, 9'51'' from Cornejo, to score his first top ten of 2024.

Amongst the Italians, it was again Paolo Lucci who stood out, finishing twelfth overall in team BAS World KTM colours and placing third in the Rally2 category behind Dumontier and Doveze. An excellent result that the Italian will try to replicate in the short but technical Stage 5, made up of just 118 km of special.