2020 Dakar Stage 4 took place earlier today. The stage consisted of a 219 km open-road section followed by a 453 km timed section. There were equal shares of sandy stretches and rocky portions, mostly on fairly fast tracks.

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Champ penalised

News early in the day was that Nasser Al-Attiyah had been handed a 3-minute penalty after stage 3 for not letting a competitor through despite hearing the aural warnings of the Sentinel device several times. As a result, he is now ranked fifth in the stage.

Local knowledge

Yazeed Al-Rajhi was back on the attack in the first part of stage 4 as he the fastest time after 55 km of racing. He opened up 10 seconds over Orlando Terranova. Stéphane Peterhansel and Nasser Al-Attiyah were within 20 seconds of the Saudi driver. It was Peterhansel who led the timesheets for the latter part of the day, setting the pace that only Nasser Al-Attiyah and Carlos Sainz could match.

Click here for our Stage 3 report.

Despite a small navigational error late in the stage, Peterhansel would hold off his pursuers to claim his first win of the 2020 Dakar. The Frenchman beat Al-Attiyah by 2 min 26 sec and Sainz by 7 min 18 sec. Al Rajhi was fourth on the day. South African Giniel de Villiers was sixth. In the overall classification, Sainz leads Al-Attiyah. The Qatari has halved his deficit to the Spaniard. See below for more.

Other categories

Sam Sunderland turned on the afterburners in the final kilometres to snatch victory from José Ignacio Cornejo at the very last minute. The British rider has won the stage by a mere 11 seconds, with Kevin Benavides just 46 seconds back after 453 km. American Ricky Brabec still leads the overall standings ahead of Benavides and Cornejo.

  1. Sainz
  2. Al-Attiyah+3 min 03 sec
  3. Peterhansel +11 min 42 sec
  4. Al-Rajhi +23 min 10 sec
  5. Terranova +23 min 13 sec
  6. Serradori +26 min 55 sec
  7. De Villiers +34 min 40 sec
  8. Ten Brinke +44 min 40 sec
  9. Prokop +1 hr 09 min 41 sec
  10. Seaidan +1 hr 30 min 25 sec

Images supplied by the ASO.