Joan Barreda won the stage, his second of the race so far, by a huge margin. The Spaniard took the overall race lead after Stage 2, but a navigation error the following day dropped him down the overall standings. The Honda rider finished more than 10 minutes clear of his closest challenger, Austrian Matthias Walkner, today though.
Kevin Benavides rounded out the podium and there was an impressive run by Antoine Méo, but it's Yamaha's Adrian Van Beveren who continues to lead the overall standings.
Walkner is just over a minute adrift of the leader
© Marcelo Maragni/Red Bull Content Pool
There was much more to lose than to win on today's stage. In the Dakar every stage is different so it's not easy to maintain a strategy
Selected standings
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1. Joan Barreda (Honda) 03:19:42
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2. Matthias Walkner (KTM) +00:10:26
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3. Kevin Benavides (Honda) +00:12:20
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4. Antoine Méo (KTM) +00:13:00
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7. Toby Price (KTM) +00:15:00