The biggest beneficiary in the reshuffling of the pack was Gerald De Rooy in the #502 Iveco Powerstar who moved back into the overall rally lead. "It was a tough day for all trucks; we also had some loose parts due to the high speeds for hours on the hard, bad roadbed," said De Rooy. "I guess it will be a night of repairs for my mechanics but that’s all part of such a hard competition," he continued: "[The] stage gave a good feeling, we drove very steady and we didn’t experience real problems. However, I’m glad we’ll have some real dunes [today]." Navigator Tom Colsoul concurred with Gerard: "the most important thing is that we keep quiet; we only left one third of the trial behind us."

Meanwhile Hans Stacey in the #505 Team De Rooy entry moved up to second place. "It was super, no unexpected things, the truck is much more stable compared to the first special," explains the experienced Dutchman. "My navigator Hans van Goor and I are making a good team: let’s go for tomorrow," added Stacey.

Everything ran smoothly for Team de Rooy right from the start and at WP1, timed after 50 kilometres, the three green Petronas-liveried Ivecos had clocked the fastest times. Gerard De Rooy led, followed by Biasion and Stacey. The rest of the very strong field followed within few seconds so everything was still possible. WP2 showed just about the same picture although Stacey fell back a few places to fifth and was now at 3.26 minutes.

At WP3 Gerard De Rooy was still on the lead but with only a slight edge on Marcel van Vliet (MAN). The difference was just 15 seconds. Biasion followed a few seconds later and Stacey was still fifth. At WP4 it was just a matter of changing the guard with Biasion swapping positions with van Vliet. As the kilometres started too countdown the entire Team De Rooy was still gunning for the stage victory.

WP5 and WP6 were almost the same story as Gerard headed to the chequered flag and he finished first in a total time of 4.22.12 hours. The veteran Stacey, who knows how to reduce the damage on this type of event, was second at 1.13 minutes, followed by Biasion who clocked through in 4.23.55 hours, only 30 seconds behind Stacey. Fourth and fifth were van Vliet and Franz Echter in their MANs but they lost, respectively, 6.22 and 9.38 minutes on the winner of the day. Also, the two Team de Rooy rapid assistance trucks are doing a great job overall and on SS4 as #515 Pep Vila took the tenth place on the test while #518 Jo Adua finished fifteenth.

After four stages the general ranking shows a green top-three, with the trio over Team De Rooy Ivecos all almost 10 minutes ahead of the closest challengers, Loprais and Ardavichus. The service trucks are now twelfth and thirteenth and not even an hour back from Gerard de Rooy. It promises to be a breathtaking competition today and fireworks can be expected from the traditionally-strong Eastern European competitors when the Dakar Rally reaches the big dunes.

Today's stage 5 will take the crews from Chilecite to Fiambala and will be the first confrontation with high dunes. This day could really make things different from yesterday. The trucks will cover a liaison ection of 246 kilometres and a special of 177 kilometres. There is a possibility that the route will be adjusted because of the heavy rainfall. The first truck will start just before noon and it’s still the question whether the last truck will make it the same day until the bivouac.