Stage 5 Ha’il – Ha’il

Results are in and some photos have arrived!

Stage and page finished! Last update januari 5th 23:07CET

Stage info

Liaison > 270 km – Special > 373 km

Press release

Flat tire costs Janus Van Kasteren Jr. day victory

Today was already the fifth stage in this Dakar rally. After a liaison of 145 kilometers, a special stage of 374 kilometers started, mainly with dunes. The stage is known as the loop Ha’il – Ha’il. The bivouac did not have to be relocated and after today’s special, the teams that are still in competition had to cover another liaison of 130 kilometers to bring their “tired” trucks back to the mechanics.

After yesterday’s misfortune, Janus van Kasteren jr., Marcel Snijders and Darek Rodewald were again in good spirits. “Get into the cabin, fasten your seatbelts and go”. The equipment of Boss Machinery Team De Rooy Iveco, who started tenth, immediately attacked and passed the first waypoint with the fourth fastest time. Their time on the second waypoint indicated they were the fastest on track and throughout the leg the lead continued to grow. It went very smoothly and the engine functioned like clockwork.

The crew of the Iveco Powerstar number 502 did not immediately reach heaven after yesterday’s hell and that was due to a flat tire just before waypoint eight. The accumulated lead of about five minutes evaporated during the tire change and so the truck with starting number 502 finally crossed the finish line third fastest, 3 minutes and 24 seconds behind winner Ales Loprais. The Czech was able to slightly extend his lead in the general classification.

Tomorrow the experienced Czech will feel the pressure of three Team De Rooy Iveco Powerstars. The excellent and consistently performing Martin van den Brink finished second, Van Kasteren jr. third and the other pilot of Team De Rooy, Mitchel van den Brink, achieved an excellent fourth place.

Janus van Kasteren about today’s stage: “Before the stop, the first two hundred kilometers were level 1 dunes. So those are easy to cross, but with very heavy sand. Lots of short undulating (wavy) terrain. Driving full throttle and taking short cuts. We followed a lot of motorcycle tracks. Everything fell in its place today. The truck performed very well. We went like crazy, but then we had a punctured tire. Well, we lost seven or eight minutes with that, of course. That is a pity, otherwise we would have won today. But victory will come.

Oh yeah; a spring leaf broke at the front right, but that didn’t bother us much.” Marcel Snijders reported that it was not difficult to navigate today: “Just follow tracks and the most important thing; indicate the dangers ahead in time.” Boss Machinery Team De Rooy Iveco can look back on a great day and that gives courage and motivation for a successful follow-up in this toughest rally in the world.

“We really fought for the win”

Martin and Mitchel van den Brink again in the top four

HA’IL – Today Martin van den Brink went down fighting. In the hunt for day success in the Dakar Rally, the pilot of Eurol Team De Rooy Iveco fell short by 16 seconds. “It’s a shame, we really raced for the win.”

Mitchel van den Brink seemed to be on his way to another place in the top three for a large part of the stage. The youngest driver from Team De Rooy had to yield in the final phase for the might of Ales Loprais, Janus van Kasteren and his father Martin. “We drove very well and were on track for the podium. In the final phase we lost time on a dune where we didn’t make it to the top with the first attempt.”

The mood in Gerard de Rooy’s Iveco team was even better today thanks to Janus van Kasteren’s third place. The Dutchman of Boss Machinery Team De Rooy Iveco thus took revenge after a disappointing fourth stage. Martin and Mitchel also finished second and fourth on Wednesday. But then the order between father and son was reversed.

“Mitchel just couldn’t reach the top”

The fifth stage there was another ‘loop’ around Ha’il. The stage covered 373 kilometers and mainly consisted of a lot of sand and different types of dunes. Martin van den Brink really feels comfortable in such circumstances. Likewise today. The experienced rally driver, who just missed out on the stage win, stated: “I had a great day. At the neutralization, at about 200 kilometers, we were 2 minutes behind Mitchel. We then decided to go for it and on one of the difficult dunes we passed Mitchel. He just missed reaching the top but we did. Loprais also got involved in today’s battle. We gave it all to win, but Loprais was just a little faster.”

“Maybe a little bit too eager”

Martin, with the 49-year-old navigator Erik Kofman and the experienced mechanic Richard Mouw as co-pilots, also partly blamed himself for missing out on the stage win. “We missed a dune three times. Maybe I was a little bit too eager. We really drove for the win and fought hard.”

Van den Brink senior did not want to waste a lot of words on it. “We are driving well. We are second in the general classification and the gap to leader Loprais is small. There are still plenty of stages with lots of opportunities and anything can happen every day.” After the fifth stage, Martin currently has a firm grip on the second position. The gap to Loprais is 15 minutes and 22 seconds.

In that general classification after the fifth stage, Mitchel van den Brink is still sixth. The 20-year-old pilot from Harskamp (The Netherlands) crossed the finish line with his Iveco Powerstar with a gap of 5.41 on Ales Loprais. “We opened very strongly. We overtook Macik already after 80 kilometers. We were ahead of Loprais and it could have been our day. But about 50 km before the finish I had difficulties with a dune. Loprais and my father overtook us. They just disappeared in the distance. We decided to drive at our own pace and finished just three seconds ahead of Pascal de Baar. Fourth place makes us happy.”

Number one in sight

Van den Brink junior has a backlog of 2 hours 18 minutes and 4 seconds. In the second stage, the team with navigator Moi Torrallardona and mechanic Jarno van de Pol, lost no less than 2 hours and 24 minutes to the winner of the day (Janus van Kasteren). “We are satisfied and will see what will happen next,” Mitchel said. Jaroslav Valtr is number five in the standings at 1:06:18. Martin Macik (at 54 minutes) is fourth and Janus van Kasteren is in third place with a gap of 51m58s. Martin van den Brink (at 15.22 from the leader) thus has a buffer at the back and at the front he has the number one in sight. More will become clear in the next three days.

That starts tomorrow with the longest stage of the Dakar Rally 2023. A liaison of 409 kilometers linked to a special of 467 (the longest in this edition) is an “attack” on men and machines. The stage consists of fast trails, narrow trails on plateaus, several dunes and sections with a lot of stones. These variations during the stage will demand a lot from the pilots and their trucks.

Results

Stage 4 is finished.

Rally stage

Stage Rank	Number	Driver	Rally stage time	Time gap to first
2	506	Martin van den Brink	4h19m20s	+16s
3	502	Janus van Kasteren	4h22m44s	+3m24s
4	511	Mitchel van den Brink	4h25m01s	+5m41s

Overall rally competition Trucks

After rally stage 5

Overall Rank	Number	Driver	Rally overall time	Gap to first	Penalty
2	506	Martin van den Brink	24h45m48s	+15m22s
3	502	Janus van Kasteren	25h22m24s	+51m58s	+15m(?)
6	511	Mitchel van den Brink	26h48m30s	+2h18m04s
X	504	Vick Versteijnen	dnf	dnf