Carlos Sainz takes over the leadership of the Dakar

The Spanish pilot Carlos Sainz He is already the new leader of the Dakar 2024 with a provisional advantage of 1 minute and 51 seconds over the Saudi Yazeed Al Rajhiafter a second stage in which the French Stéphane Peterhansel He reached fifty victories in the car category, winning a bitter fight with his compatriot by 29 seconds. Sébastien Loeb.

The Frenchman finished with a time of 3 hours, 54 minutes and 40 seconds, a stage in which Sainz was eighth17 minutes and 15 seconds behind Peterhansel, which helped him maintain the great advantage achieved in the first stage this Saturday and take the lead, thus overtaking the Belgian De Mevius, fifth overall.

Sainz is 4 minutes and 17 seconds ahead of Loeb, who is third, and 13 minutes and 16 seconds ahead of the winner of this stage, while he remains twelve minutes ahead of the Qatari. Nasser Al-Attiyahcurrent Dakar champion and who finished the day in fifth position.

Two protagonists teammates

Peterhansel finished confirming the good omens of the first two days: the victory of the Swede Mattias Ekström, the second place of Carlos Sainz this Saturday, getting one minute ahead of the rivals and his victory this Sunday confirmed that Audi came to this Dakar with the aim of winning it, although for this we will have to wait a few more days to confirm its reliability.

Until then, the German team can be excited by the first results and celebrate a double milestone: Stéphane Peterhansel’s fiftieth victory in cars and the lead achieved by the Spaniard this Sunday, containing his closest rivals. All of this, on top of that, with a hybrid vehicle.

The Frenchman beat the car debutant Seth Quintero by just over three minutes, who finished third, and by 29 seconds over Loeb, who showed that the Prodrive that he and Al-Attiyah drive can be a great contender for the title, although it also Toyotas have something to say, a brand that occupies five of the top ten vehicles in the general classification.

Although he had Loeb very close at all times, Peterhansel led eight of the nine sections of this stage that covered 651 kilometers463 of them special, between the cities of Al Hanakiyah and Al Duwadimi, and took the pilots through Saudi Arabia.

Carlos Sainz also had a difficult time, who if this Saturday reigned on the volcanic stones, this Sunday finished eighth, behind the main favorites, such as Al-Attiyah, Peterhansel and Loeb. The Madrid native started second and quickly passed the Belgian De Mevius, so he had to open the track and, in addition, he had a puncture that took its toll.

Nevertheless, His good income achieved in the first stage allowed him not to risk during the rest of the day and let those who had to do it be the ones who had wasted much more time this Saturday.

Al-Attiyah recovers

However, the other favorites did it and recovered from the bad first stage. The clearest example, besides that of Peterhansel and Loeb, was that of Al-Attiyah, who after losing almost 25 minutes with Sainz this Saturday, placed fourth in the stage despite breaking the rear bar, the same thing that happened to Loeb in the first stage, as he acknowledged at the end of the stage.

He thus recovered about twelve minutes to now be just 12 minutes and 16 seconds behind and now seventh overall, behind Ekström, who placed sixth after finishing the stage seventh.

It also worked for the Catalan Laia Sanz, who finished in a creditable twentieth position, 36 minutes behind the leader. Something worse went for Nani Roma, who lost up to 25 minutes compared to the leading drivers and who says goodbye to his overall chances, despite the fact that the number one objective this year was to get to know the car and give data to Ford to prepare for the next Dakar, in which they will have better performance with a new vehicle.

In any case, the runners have four stages ahead of them until they reach the rest day in which they will be able to undo any past mistakes, since this Monday and Tuesday they will ride in a semi-marathon between Ad Duwadimi and Al-Hofuf in preparation for the ’48 hour chrono’ that will take place between Wednesday and Thursday through the Empty Quarter desert, the most inhospitable in the Arabian Peninsula.

2024-01-07 13:53:09
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