The Frenchman Sébastien Loeb (Prodrive) risked, won and reduced ten minutes of advantage over the Spanish Carlos Sainz (Audi), who remains the leader in the general classification of the Dakar 2024, to which the Swede is no longer eligible. Mattias Ekström (Audi) due to a failure in the vehicle’s suspension.
Loeb finished an endless stage of the Dakar in 4 hours, 56 minutes and 39 seconds and reduced the gap with Sainz, who despite suffering a puncture that caused him to lose seven minutes, remains first with 19 minutes of difference over the Frenchman with five stages remaining until the conclusion of the Dakar, which this Sunday experienced its longest timed day, with 483 timed kilometers.
For his part, Ekström had a breakdown that forced him to stop the car at the beginning of the stage, so he says goodbye to his chances of winning the rally and the Brazilian. Lucas Moraes (Toyota) and his Catalan co-pilot Armand Monleon He already occupies third place, one hour and 35 seconds behind the Madrid native.
The Brazilian finished second, seven minutes and six seconds behind Loeb, while the Qatari Nasser Al-Attiyah (Prodrive), now without a chance for his third consecutive title, finished third, nine minutes and 47 seconds behind the Frenchman, beating Sainz, room.
The French pilot, who longs a Dakar that has been searching tirelessly for years but which he has not yet achieved, he decided to take a risk despite having to open the track and achieved his third stage in this edition of the rally, the twenty-sixth of his career in the king of rallies.
He left very convinced and after the first kilometers he was already more than three minutes ahead of Sainz, who left aware of the hardness of this stageone of the most complicated in the remainder of the rally and he preferred to secure the lead and lose time rather than expose himself to any error, especially after his puncture.
Furthermore, the example was very close to him. Ekström, his teammate, came out to make differences, but just after passing Sainz on the trackhad to stop due to a failure in the suspension of his vehicle and said goodbye to the general classification.
So, The Madrid native chose to secure a good position for this Monday’s stage and not take risks on this day, which together with the penultimate of the rally, are the two marked on the Audi calendar as the most complicated of the remainder of the rally.
Withdrawal of Nani Roma
The Catalan driver ‘Nani’ Roma (Ford) withdrew this Sunday from the Dakar 2024 due to a mechanical problem just beginning the timed section of the seventh stage of the rally.
The Catalan stopped in the kilometer 24 of the special and he was not able to return to the special stage, although he was able to start the car again to drive it to the Ad Duwadimi camp, from where he will try to rejoin the race this Monday to “continue learning” with Ford about the vehicle.
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At the beginning of the stage, Rome was twelfth overall two hours and seven minutes behind the Spanish Carlos Sainz (Audi), leader of the classification, although his objective this year was that the mechanics and the Ford team could learn on their return to the Dakar to try to aspire to the next rally with a completely new.
The Catalan had started his twenty-seventh participation in the Dakar 2024 last Sunday and this was, without a doubt, one of the most special, since last year he could not be in Arabia as he was recovering from a bladder cancer that ended up surpassing.
2024-01-14 15:42:36
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