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Sanders had a stage-long battle with Honda’s Tosha Schareina, who led right up to the final checkpoint before deliberately stopping in order to avoid starting first on Stage 5.
Schareina led Sanders by almost three minutes before his decision to stop, which allowed the Red Bull KTM rider to take back control and win the stage by 15 seconds.
Not since Stephane Peterhansel in 1997 had a rider won four stages in the opening week of the rally, with Sanders now 13’26” ahead in the overall standings after gaining time back on the stage and from race officials after some GPS issues affected his roadmap on Stage 3.
“A little bit of cat and mouse at the end,” Sanders said after his win. “I knew there was a good chance to extend the overall lead after I lost so much time yesterday, which was out of my control.
“It was important to get that back, now tomorrow the pressure is back on to try and not lose too much and open really well.”
As for Toby price and British navigator Sam Sunderland, the dream is over after a puncture and subsequent axle failure forced them to stop and wait for a service truck with 100 kilometres remaining.
The pair lost more than five hours due to the ordeal before finishing in 54th position as the final car to complete the stage in T1 Ultimate.
As a result, Price and Sunderland sit 51st in the overall standings for the cars, almost six hours behind current leaders Henk Lategan and Brett Cummings.
Fellow Australian Toby Hederics was able to negotiate the rocky conditions without too much drama, finishing fourth in the Rally 2 to further consolidate his overall position in 10th place.
Meanwhile, Andrew Houlihan wound up requesting assistance from his Nomadics team overnight to rectify his vehicle’s electrical issues, before finishing 13th in the Malle Moto.
Houlihan remains 17th the overall Malle Moto standings, while brothers Peter and Christopher Schey finished the stage in 15th position and 23rd overall for the Classic classification.
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Dakar Rally 2025
