RALLY DAKAR 2023

Gerard Farrés wins the stage in T4 and presents his candidacy for victory

Without Carlos Sainz and Joan Barreda already in the race, we have to look back at the 'small' four-wheel category, that of the modified standard Side by Side, or T4, where there is a Spanish role... and a lot. Both in the fight for the final victory and in the fight of each day.

First win for Farrés...In fact, today Gerard Farrés and Diego Ortega signed their first stage win in the tenth, between Haradh and Shaybah, 114 kilometers long, all of them over the dunes. A very good sign if we take into account that the next two days, the ones that make up the marathon, will be in this same type of setting.

The pair from the South Racing team beat two of the Goczals, in this case Marek and the young Eryk, and shaved two and a half minutes off the leader Baciuska. In addition, Farrés and Ortega have slipped into the top eleven in the car stage, counting the T1, T2, T3 and T4.

'Spanish' triplet in the general... The situation of the race cannot paint better for the interests of the Spanish drivers since we have one of our own in each vehicle of the three that make up the virtual podium of the Dakar 2023.

In the lead are Rokas Baciuska and Oriol Vidal, colleagues of Farrés and Ortega (provisional third place) in the official South Racing team. Between the two appear Eryk Goczal, with a stellar debut in the Dakar, and his navigator, the Spanish Oriol Mena.

Of course, the distances are very short and the category is very open... and not only between the three mentioned, who are separated by less than seven minutes. Marek Gozcal is also in contention as he rides fourth, 11:40 behind Baciuska, recently crowned W2RC world champion in the category.

"This victory is a warning for the rest"...After the stage Farrés was especially satisfied with the form and the moment in which his first partial victory came: "I am happy to get this victory with Diego. It represents a lot for us because we had been fighting for some time and we needed to win a stage. It gives us confidence for what is coming, it means that we have possibilities", he said.

And also, it is an important moral blow both for the Spanish couple and, with the opposite effect, for their rivals: "The fact of winning the stage shows that we are here, a warning to the rest, to play with psychology. Not anymore they can only say that we are very regular", said 'Farreti' proudly.

The Catalan is 6:47 behind the head, a minimum distance, especially if someone has some mechanical complication: "In this category it is nothing. We are all on the limit of breaking anything, a bar, a bearing... And that's 15 minutes." For this reason, the objective for the next two days, those of the marathon, is clear: "We have to be able to go to the maximum but without breaking anything. without making any mistakes."

by Enrique Naranjo