There was a clear winner on Stage 4 of the 2017 Silk Way Rally<\/u><\/a> as S\u00e9bastien Loeb<\/u><\/a> took charge of the day\u2019s racing from start to finish. The Frenchman with nine World Rally Championship titles arrived in Kazakhstan\u2019s capital city with a lead of over an hour from his closest competitor thanks to a superb display of driving.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Despite being charged with opening the road there was never any sign that Loeb and his Monegasque co-driver Daniel Elena<\/strong> were exercising caution. The pair pushed their Peugeot 3008DKR Maxi<\/strong><\/u><\/a> to the limit with pace and precision over the day\u2019s two timed sections of 214km and 159km.<\/p>\n The fact you can count Loeb and Elena\u2019s entries into two-week rally-raids on one hand makes today\u2019s performance truly astounding. However, with 10 long stages still to play out nobody was getting ahead of themselves back at the bivouac in Astana.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ll see what advantage we can take from today\u2019s result but that will only start to show when we get back to racing tomorrow.\u201d \u2013 S\u00e9bastien Loeb<\/em><\/p>\n Win a piece of S\u00e9bastien Loeb\u2019s rally kit with our Facebook competition clip.<\/strong><\/u><\/a><\/p>\n Underlining the quality of Loeb\u2019s performance was the contrasting fortunes that hit his Peugeot team-mates St\u00e9phane Peterhansel<\/strong><\/u><\/a> and Cyril Despres<\/strong><\/u><\/a>. Peterhansel\u2019s hopes of winning this year\u2019s race appear over after he rolled his car on Stage 4. The 13-time Dakar winner and co-driver Jean-Paul Cottret<\/strong> were eventually able to drive on, coming home to the bivouac 3h04m20s behind Loeb.<\/p>\n