Strategy is a real factor in rally raids. The fear of getting stuck in a yo-yo dynamic is one of the things that keep elite riders awake at night, especially when the time comes to go all in for the title. Tosha Schareina, however, made a show of panache yesterday and today to claim back-to-back victories. Dakar riders who can win from the front of the field are few and far between. The Spaniard did it with a barnstorming performance that saw him alone at the front for half of the 417 km special en route to his fourth stage win in the event.

Schareina seized the overall lead to boot, although Ricky Brabec is inside the same second. The two Monster Energy Honda HRC leaders are in a dead heat after five days of racing. The Spaniard holds the lead by virtue of his better performance in today's stage.

Skyler Howes, just 10 seconds back, made it a 1-2-3 for Honda and underscored the strength of the Japanese marque. On the flip side, Adrien Van Beveren conceded another 5 minutes and is now teetering on the edge of the top 10, a full 27′24″ behind Schareina.

Meanwhile, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing are biding their time. Daniel Sanders, fifth at 2′37″, and Edgar Canet, eighth at 3′49″, remain in contention for the overall, especially the man from Down Under, who is just 1′24″ behind Schareina and Brabec and will have a more favourable start position tomorrow.

The Rally2 class saw its top two riders tailspin out of the fight for the title. A broken wheel prevented Michael Docherty from reaching the bivouac-refuge. He will be slapped with a huge penalty. Meanwhile, Martim Ventura lost almost two hours due to mechanical problems. A podium finish is a long shot now. Their bad luck was a boon for the Dakar rookie Preston Campbell, the son of the American pioneer Johnny Campbell, who now leads the standings. Last but not least, Neels Theric opened his personal account with a stage win, also the first for the Chinese manufacturer Kove.

These are still early days, but Henk Lategan may have already taken his first step towards glory. Last year, he was locked in a high-stakes duel with Yazeed Al Rajhi until he faltered within sight of the line. The South African, knowing that the Dakar is an indomitable beast, decided to throw caution to the wind in a bid to break the vicious cycle of puncture after puncture. In the end, fortune favoured the bold, with Lategan driving his Toyota Hilux to his fifth career Dakar stage win, putting more than seven minutes into Nasser Al Attiyah and seizing the overall lead by 3′55″ over the Qatari.

Further back, the Goczał clan turned out in force, with the father, Marek, third at 14′15″, the son, Eryk, fourth at 17′36″, and the uncle, Michał, sixth at 19′53″.

The Poles will be delighted to have surrounded Sébastien Loeb, fifth at 17′54″. It is all starting to add up for the French driver, now eighth overall at 20 minutes, but he certainly has the skills to turn this around.

The Toyotas and Dacias are perched at the summit of the ranking, but the Ford Raptors remain within striking distance after making a splash yesterday, The American Mitch Guthrie flopped at the front of the field, haemorrhaging almost 44 minutes, but Mattias Ekström, third at 13′, and Carlos Sainz, fourth at 15′53″, are in a great position going into the latter half of the marathon-refuge stage, which they will begin in twelfth and thirteenth position.

It was the end of the road for the title holder in the Ultimate class, who had already delivered a subdued performance since the start of a Dakar, in which a question mark hung over his form. In the end, it was mechanical gremlins that did Yazeed Al Rajhi in as his Toyota Hilux gave up the ghost at km 234. The Saudi may resume the race after the marathon-refuge stage, but with no chance of fighting for the podium.