“Stage #4 was good, it was the shortest one yet so I was happy to have a shorter day,” began Ricky Brabec. “We’re at the bivouac an hour earlier than we have been, so that’s also nice and it gives the mechanics some more time to work on the bikes.”
Besides another hour to unwind and debrief, Brabec and his Monster Energy Honda Rally Team also got a little time to celebrate as he finished the stage runner-up to team-mate José Ignacio Cornejo. The latter’s stage win, the sixth of his career, boosts him to the top spot in the Dakar Rally‘s general ranking.
Cornejo and Brabec chased down overall leader Ross Branch to start the stage before Branch crashed just forty kilometres in; another crash happened twenty kilometres from the finish, though he was still able to salvage a fourth-place finish. With Branch out of the picture, the Honda duo occupied the top two for the rest of the day, though Brabec still had to stave off Monday’s winner Kevin Benavides for second. Although Benavides had more time bonuses than Brabec, he was still eighteen seconds shy of overtaking him.
“It was a mix of terrains and they did say it would be a little bit easier,” Cornejo commented. He now has a 1:15 lead on Branch while Brabec remains third and just under five minutes behind his ally. “It felt faster and not as physical as the previous days, but there were some sections of tricky navigation so I had to stay focused. I did some little mistakes at the beginning but then I pushed harder with a good solid pace and finished in a positive way.”
On the FIA side, Nasser Al-Attiyah seemed poised to finally score his first Dakar stage win with Prodrive until his team-mate Sébastien Loeb and Yazeed Al-Rajhi erased deficits of twenty-four seconds and 1:32 to overtake him in the final thirty-six kilometres. Al-Rajhi’s Toyota colleague Seth Quintero posed the biggest challenge to Al-Attiyah to start the day before a damaged oil pipe doomed his pursuit.
After their streaks were snapped in Stage #3, Eryk Goczał and Janus van Kasteren returned to their winning ways in Challenger and Truck, respectively. The former’s uncle Michał Goczał finished second behind his nephew, while father Marek Goczał just missed the Challenger podium in fourth and a minute behind Ignacio Casale. Casale’s Yamaha is just the second non-Taurus T3 Max to score a podium in the class so far after the OT3 of Kris Meeke finished third in the Prologue, which is not counted in the overall results.
João Ferreira enjoyed his first stage win in SSV, which now has four different stage victors in as many days (five including the Prologue), though he still has work to do as he trails overall leader Gerard Farrés by thirty-one minutes.
Trucks ran a 273-kilometre route rather than the full 299, the second time the FIA shortened a stage for the class after doing so for Stage #1. Clerk of the Course Pedro Almeida explained spectators and vehicles were situated along dunes in the final sector and would have been difficult for Truck drivers to easily spot from how high they are seated.
Despite being a short route, the stage’s fast nature still caused many drivers to commit navigation errors. The FIA clocked over fifty-five violations in the stage for speeding and missed waypoints, with seven of the top ten SSV finishers getting busted.
Challenger driver Gert-Jan Van Der Valk did not start the stage after a bizarre accident in which a support vehicle from the Goczałs’ EnergyLandia Rally Team collided with his Arcane T3, damaging the left-rear wheel. Overnight, Jan-Willem van Mourik‘s SSV caught fire in the bivouac after a fuel pump change went awry.
Stage #4 winners
| Class | Number | Competitor | Team | Time |
| Ultimate (T1) | 203 | Sébastien Loeb | Bahrain Raid Xtreme | 2:36:02 |
| Stock (T2) | 501 | Akira Miura* | Team Land Cruiser Toyota Auto Body | 3:45:09 |
| Challenger (T3) | 302 | Eryk Goczał | EnergyLandia Rally Team | 2:58:28 |
| SSV (T4) | 400 | João Ferreira | South Racing Can-Am | 3:13:09 |
| Truck (T5) | 600 | Janus van Kasteren* | Boss Machinery Team de Rooy | 3:00:49 |
| RallyGP | 11 | José Ignacio Cornejo | Monster Energy Honda Rally Team | 2:51:11 |
| Rally2 | 16 | Romain Dumontier | Team Dumontier Racing | 3:03:05 |
| Quad | 174 | Manuel Andújar | 7240 Team | 3:35:06 |
| Classic | 768 | Carlos Santaolalla* | Factory Tub | 24 points |
| Mission 1000 | 3 teams | 3 teams | 3 teams | 10 points |
Leaders after Stage #4
| Class | Number | Competitor | Team | Time |
| Ultimate (T1) | 201 | Yazeed Al-Rajhi | Overdrive Racing | 15:44:39 |
| Stock (T2) | 500 | Akira Miura* | Team Land Cruiser Toyota Auto Body | 22:48:20 |
| Challenger (T3) | 302 | Eryk Goczał | EnergyLandia Rally Team | 17:18:25 |
| SSV (T4) | 402 | Gerard Farrés* | South Racing Can-Am | 19:10:19 |
| Truck (T5) | 600 | Janus van Kasteren* | Boss Machinery Team de Rooy | 17:45:17 |
| RallyGP | 11 | José Ignacio Cornejo | Monster Energy Honda Rally Team | 17:27:13 |
| Rally2 | 16 | Romain Dumontier | Team Dumontier Racing | 18:05:57 |
| Quad | 174 | Manuel Andújar | 7240 Team | 21:51:48 |
| Classic | 768 | Carlos Santaolalla* | Factory Tub | 165 points |
| Mission 1000 | 1030 | Jordi Juvanteny* | KH7-Ecovergy Team | 50 points |