#Dakar2015, Day 4 - Chilecito, Argentina to Copiapo, Chile

Trucks route

Today on day 4, the 2015 edition Dakar progresses from Chilecito, Argentina and culminates at Copiapo, Chile crossing the international border. It begins with a long transport of 594 km, climbing to an altitude of 4800 meters.

The special stage initially starts with a gradual undulating roads through mining are, to finally tackle the dunes of Atacama desert. It is going to be a tricky one, as the 315 km of specials in the later pasrt of the desert, which is wide and open and demands good navigating skills. It would be a little bit shorter course for the trucks, as they take a short cut early, only to rejoin the stage later at the sandy Atacama.

Atacama dunes

Among bikers, Joan Barreda Bort on his Honda 450 Rally won the stage, 1m59s ahead of the defending champion Marc Coma on his KTM 450 Rally Replica. Chilean Pablo Quintanilla finished third quickest with his best 2m49s to the stage winner.

Indian champ, Santosh Chunchunguppe Shivashankar finished 57 quickest with a stage time of 4h22m42s, 55m14s adrift the stage winner, on his KTM 450 Rally Replica.

Joan Barreda Bort holds onto the top spot with over 12minutes lead over defending champ Marc Coma, as Paulo Goncalves retains his third overall spot.

Overall Top 5, Bikes after Stage 4

Pos.	N°	Name	Mark	Time	Difference	Penalty
1	2	BARREDA BORT (ESP)	HONDA	13:10:33	-	-
2	1	COMA (ESP)	KTM	13:23:22	00:12:49	-
3	7	GONCALVES (PRT)	HONDA	13:31:02	00:20:29	-
4	11	FARIA (PRT)	KTM	13:33:38	00:23:05	-
5	4	VILADOMS (ESP)	KTM	13:35:24	00:24:51	-
50	59	SANTOSH C S (IND)	KTM	16:44:12	03:33:39	-

Ignacio Nicolas Casale

Rafal Sonik takes another stage victory on his Yamaha quad, Ignacio Nicolas Casale finished 3m26s below the Polish, Qatari Abu-Issa takes a close 3rd spot, 40secs ahead of Uruguayan Lafuente.

Overall top 3 are held by Rafal Sonik despite his 15min total penalty, Lafuente and Casale.

Top 5 Quads, Stage 4

Pos.	N°	Name	Mark	Time	Difference	Penalty
1	251	SONIK (POL)	YAMAHA	04:11:35	-	-
2	250	CASALE (CHL)	YAMAHA	04:15:01	00:03:26	-
3	253	ABU-ISSA (QAT)	HONDA	04:24:49	00:13:14	-
4	252	LAFUENTE (URY)	YAMAHA	04:25:29	00:13:54	-
5	261	GONZALEZ FERIOLI (ARG)	YAMAHA	04:32:43	00:21:08	-

Overall Top 5, Quads after Stage 4

Pos.	N°	Name	Mark	Time	Difference	Penalty
1	251	SONIK (POL)	YAMAHA	16:04:55	-	00:15:00
2	252	LAFUENTE (URY)	YAMAHA	16:08:44	00:03:49	-
3	250	CASALE (CHL)	YAMAHA	16:18:27	00:13:32	00:20:00
4	253	ABU-ISSA (QAT)	HONDA	16:24:42	00:19:47	-
5	272	COPETTI (ARG)	YAMAHA	17:08:15	01:03:20	-

Nasser Al-attiyah

Nasser Al-Attiyah wins another stage, while his Nani Roma finishes quickly behind with 2m40s, driving their Mini. Toyota Hilux driver, Giniel De Villiers finishes quickly 17secs to Roma. Yazeed Al-Rajhi and Stephane Peterhansel, on 4th and 5th positions.

Nasser holds the top spot with over 8 minutes to De Villiers, provisionally Al-Rajhi in third overall.

Top 5 Cars, Stage 4

Pos.	N°	Name	Mark	Time	variation	Penalty
1	301	AL-ATTIYAH (QAT) BAUMEL (FRA)	MINI	03:09:18	-	-
2	300	ROMA (ESP) PERIN (FRA)	MINI	03:11:58	00:02:40	-
3	303	DE VILLIERS (ZAF) VON ZITZEWITZ (DEU)	TOYOTA	03:12:15	00:02:57	-
4	325	ALRAJHI (SAU) GOTTSCHALK (DEU)	TOYOTA	03:12:43	00:03:25	-
5	302	PETERHANSEL (FRA) COTTRET (FRA)	PEUGEOT	03:15:06	00:05:48	-

Overall Top 5, Cars after Stage 4

Pos.	N°	Name	Mark	Time	Difference	Penalty
1	301	AL-ATTIYAH (QAT) BAUMEL (FRA)	MINI	12:30:44	-	00:02:00
2	303	DE VILLIERS (ZAF) VON ZITZEWITZ (DEU)	TOYOTA	12:38:59	00:08:15	-
3	325	ALRAJHI (SAU) GOTTSCHALK (DEU)	TOYOTA	12:54:17	00:23:33	-
4	315	TEN BRINKE (NLD) COLSOUL (BEL)	TOYOTA	13:13:16	00:42:32	-
5	314	VAN LOON (NLD) ROSEGAAR (NLD)	MINI	13:15:58	00:45:14	-

It was Kamaz day for trucks competition, as Andrey Karginov won the stage, while his team-mates,Eduard Nikolaev was second only by 3 seconds, and Airat Mardeev finished third by 6m3s. Ales Loprais driving his Man was 4th quickest, and Iveco driver Hans Stacey finishes in 5th position.

Again it is Kamaz drivers Mardeev, Karginov and Nikolaev who are in top 3 overall in the order, all within 2 minutes of competition after day 4. An impressive performance for a record.

Top 4 Trucks, Stage 4

Pos.	N°	Name	Mark	Time	Difference	Penalty
1	500	KARGINOV (RUS) MOKEEV (RUS) LEONOV (RUS)	KAMAZ	02:06:51	-	-
2	502	NIKOLAEV (RUS) YAKOVLEV (RUS) AKHMADEEV (RUS)	KAMAZ	02:06:54	00:00:03	-
3	507	MARDEEV (RUS) BELYAEV (RUS) SVISTUNOV (RUS)	KAMAZ	02:13:04	00:06:13	-
4	503	LOPRAIS (CZE) MARCO ALCAYNA (ESP)  VAN DER VAET (BEL)	MAN	02:17:51	00:11:00	-

Overall Top 4, Trucks after Stage 4

Pos.	N°	Name	Mark	Time	Difference	Penalty
1	507	MARDEEV (RUS) BELYAEV (RUS) SVISTUNOV (RUS)	KAMAZ	10:39:26	-	-
2	500	KARGINOV (RUS) MOKEEV (RUS) LEONOV (RUS)	KAMAZ	10:41:11	00:01:45	-
3	502	NIKOLAEV (RUS) YAKOVLEV (RUS) AKHMADEEV (RUS)	KAMAZ	10:41:23	00:01:57	-
4	503	LOPRAIS (CZE) MARCO ALCAYNA (ESP)  VAN DER VAET (BEL)	MAN	10:52:08	00:12:42	-

*Trucks and Cars results shown here are provisional, at the moment.

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MOTO+QUAD+CAR+TRUCK Route map

Tomorrow, Day 5 moves the action north bound along the fesh-fesh roads to Antofagasta, from Capiapo. This is the first of the rare special stages in which all categories will compete.

Stage's vertical profile for Day 5

At the start of the race, the most confident drivers will be able to take advantage of the fast tracks to try to move up in the overall standings. But the temptation to do so may be risky, particularly in the hard-to-handle fesh-fesh areas where absolute self-control is the only guarantee of success. Overtaking here requires precision handling to the extreme.

Surviving the stage needs a lot of luck, skill and truck loads of will-power, which even the truckers are dreadful! Until tomorrow, good night..