Joan Barreda achieves his second victory in the longest stage of the Dakar

Attacking is good for Joan Barreda. If this Tuesday he accused having to open a track on the way to Al-Qaisumah and left 10 minutes in a very fast special, the one from Torreblanca took advantage of the opportunity this Wednesday. After the more than 38 minutes lost in the first stage, the most difficult to navigate, starting from 24th position was a unique opportunity to get a slice in the longest special of this Dakar Rally: 465 km of timed, with a very fast of about 200 km, followed by a good dose of dunes and stony sections. A demanding and conducive scenario for one of the most experienced riders in the category to take advantage of the guidance of those who had started first and set a barbarous pace with his motorcycle.

With his second win in this edition in just four stages, Joan Barreda (Honda) climbs to sixth place overall and is now only 13 minutes behind the leader.

He took four minutes out of second, his teammate Pablo Quintanilla, and almost seven from a rookie but popular Danilo Petrucci (KTM).

The Italian, a MotoGP rider until last November and who suffered a breakdown on his motorcycle on the second day, used the wild card that the organization gave him and was able to continue in the race after repairing his motorcycle and after accepting a penalty of 11 hours.

His goal was to enjoy the Dakar and gain experience.

He is succeeding.

In addition, he is showing that he has the skills to fight in the race in the coming years.

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The leader of the classification, Sam Sunderland GasGas), gave ten minutes compared to Barreda's time and already has Matthias Walkner (KTM), one of the strongest men in the category, three minutes in the general classification.

In the car category, Carlos Sainz is defending himself as well as he can as the first car to start while his Audi team-mate Stéphane Peterhansel is stranded again in the middle of the stage after an accident.

The Frenchman broke his car's rear shock absorber and engine cooling system after a jump.

And there he stayed, at kilometer 98 of the special, waiting for the assists.

🎙 @s_peterhansel: "We broke the shock absorber just after landing. It also broke the engine water cooling system. We have to wait for our support truck to get a new shock absorber but also to fix the cooling system. I think we'll be here for a long time. "# Dakar2022 pic.twitter.com/HiT8jlXwDX

- DAKAR RALLY (@dakar) January 5, 2022

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