The 462 km long stage was announced as a difficult ride with a lot of navigation and a belt of dunes at the end. Wauters was in the top three from the start of the stage. “It didn’t go as we had hoped. We went from heaven to hell today,” he said in response. “Things went very well along the way, both driving and navigating. We, unlike many others, took all the waypoints and were third overall after just over 300 km.”
With the dunes in sight, Wauters decided not to attack anymore. “There was no point in attacking anymore, because the result would be good anyway. Suddenly there was a steep dune down, a mini slope so to speak. But I never expected that a much steeper dune would follow down behind it. I had just a little too much speed, which caused us to jump a bit and the car ended up with its nose on the sand.”
“Then there are two possibilities: either he lands on his wheels or he turns over and rolls. Unfortunately, it turned out to be the latter. The roll cage has done its job, but it is no longer safe to drive this car. Tom and I are okay and that is the most important thing. But if we were to roll again now, the cage would possibly fold even more and so it is no longer responsible to continue driving,” Wauters concluded.
