During the fourth stage of the Dakar Rally, Tim and Tom Coronel found the right rhythm. Little by little they moved up in the standings and got less and less affected by dust. Tom’s navigation was sharp today and that provided a lot of confidence in the Century CR6. The brothers are very satisfied after this very fast stage.
Tim was very pleased with Tom’s navigation, “It was a great day, but what I thought was the most clever thing today was the navigation. On those plains, Tom was right on time with the right direction at the right time. That felt very nice and that also gives you confidence. Then you can keep up the momentum a bit more. So that was really nice.”
The stage was very nice, with fast sections at the beginning. “There we still had some trouble with dust from other cars, but we caught up with a few again. We’re now moving further and further forward and getting more to where we’re supposed to drive, then you have less trouble with it. On those fast flat sections we really had to ride blind tothe roadbook and that was really cool to navigate.”
At the end of the stage there was another dune section where the cooperation between Tim and Tom was very good. “There you have to drive on cap,” Tom explained. “The roadbook tells you the direction, your cap, and how long you have to keep it. Then when you have the waypoint then the cap changes and so you have to react well to that. We had to look very briefly twice, but we just did well. In those dunes Tim rode really fast too, nice pace.”
Tomorrow the fifth stage is on the schedule and it will go from Al Hofuf to Shubaytah. It looks like an easy stage on paper, with only 118 kilometers at speed, but it certainly isn’t. There is a long liaison up to the start and then the participants dive into the sand of the Empty Quarter.
