Joaquim Rodrigues finished 12th in Stage 4
His teammate CS Santosh though wasn't as lucky and struggled with navigation issues today as well. The only Indian rider at this point, Santosh started Stage 4 at 105th place and had to fend off the dust trail left by the other riders. The extremely soft sandy sections in the first part of the special didn't make things any easier for him. Nevertheless, Santosh managed to make a healthy recovery through the day picking up pace, and completed the special stage in 6 hours 41 minute and 43 seconds putting him in the 64th place in the provisional general classification and 77th in the overall general classification, moving up 27 places.
Joan Pedrero dropped to 31st at the end of Stage 4
Another major update from Stage 4 was the retirement of Toby Price of KTM, one of the top contenders in the Dakar 2017 Moto Category. Price crashed at the 371 km mark fracturing his left femur and had to be evacuated by helicopter just over 10 minutes later. The organisers then announced that the KTM rider won't be able to participate in the race. This does make the prospects brighter for his teammate Matthias Walkner, as Honda's Joan Barreda continues to lead the rally.
