Bad luck is on Huzink's heels

5.1.2023

Bad luck is chasing Gert Huzink. The Dutch pilot did not make it to the podium. In the 4th stage of the Dakar Rally, he was fighting for the gold medal, but then a mechanical failure stopped him and his crew was left in the dunes. At the same time, Pascal de Baar was also close to the podium, but finished seventh.

"It was looking great again and it seemed that Gert was on the way to the desired stage victory, but a hundred kilometers before the finish line, that dream was lost," commented Renault racing designer Mario Kress, when he was joined by pilot Gert Huzink: "After a wonderful start with beautiful high dunes and a nice fight with Martin Macík, first we had a flat tire, then water leaked and the compressor was damaged. We fixed the water leak, but not the compressor. If we manage to repair the car depends on  when we get out of the desert," the Riwald Dakar Team driver was not happy about the forced stop.

Despite the difficulties of his colleague, Pascal de Baar also drove excellently, and was also very close to the desired podium in the 4th stage. At the penultimate crossing point, he was third, and he was just over six minutes behind the fastest driver. “Then my stupid mistake came. I reacted late to the navigator's warning and bent the connecting pipe," explained Pascal den Baar, why he fell to seventh place. The third pilot of North Bohemian trucks, Adwin Hoondert, was classified eighteenth. Czech Martin Macík won the 425 kilometer long loop in the dunes with the start and finish in Ha'il.

Aleš Loprais leads the general ranking, Adwin Hoondert is nineteenth and three positions behind him is Pascal de Baar.

Thursday's stage 5 is again a loop starting and ending at the bivouac in Ha'il. In total, the crew will have to cover less than six hundred kilometers, including three hundred and seventy of timed section. The organizers promise sand, sand and sand. The art of dune jumping will be the difference between gaining and losing minutes.