RALLY DAKAR 2018

Dakar: Carlos Sainz close to triumph ... but 119 km away
Carlos Sainz just 119 km more qualifies him for his second Dakar win. Having overcome all the setbacks that came before him, including breaking the selector of the gearbox in the stage of the day before yesterday, which could happen earlier could have ended with the chances of winning, the Spaniard is close to reaching victory in an event where he was not the most favorite.These were his teammates, Stéphane Peterhansel and Sébastien Loeb, one for the experience, another for the speed, but as this Dakar showed us insistently, any forecast or preview could get stuck. Both Peterhansel and Loeb were victims of the traps of the test, keeping this away from the triumph. This was well used by the Spaniard who after some luck and a lot of stress, due to several situations, including the case 'Kees Koleen' (quad pilot who claimed to have been run over) now only a hecatomb (which will never be belittled) Carlos Sainz can steal your victory.

There is no recent memory of such a sharp rage in the caravan of the Dakar and this is not the test with more abandonments than always, which are not missing are stories to tell. Reason was Bruno Famin, director of Peugeot Sport, when at the end of step 5 came out with a phrase almost 'prophetic': "We have no idea how it will end." Maybe today you have a better idea, but still you should not be 100% rested ...At that time, Peugeot still had Stéphane Peterhansel in the fight, but the next day the Frenchman lost 1h47m, falling to third place overall, yesterday hit a tree, lost another hour and fell to fourth place. Honestly, it does not even seem like him ...ASO has made changes to the regulations for this year, and Bruno Famin has not failed to warn and regret that changes to the Dakar regulations have taken competitiveness out of their cars, while Toyota has become more competitive. There was this fear on the side of Peugeot, but that was not what was seen when the Dakar started to talk less of 'impossible' stages and one can better understand what was in the reality of the car and each concept.And then it became known that even 'penalized' Peugeot were still better, although in this context, most likely, the quality of the riders surpassed some of Peugeot's lesser competitiveness.

The Mini did not even notice this Dakar, its participation was almost a disaster, and the Toyota never managed to supplant the Peugeot in pure progress. To this they added some misfortune, they were repeatedly stuck, and related and this delayed them in a way that made it very difficult to take better advantage of the problems that the Peugeot were having.

The trio of Toyota drivers was what they hoped for (perhaps Attiyah could have done a little better), Villiers is one of those riders who does not seem fast, but "always walks around", and Dutchman Bernhard Ten Brinke deserved the podium and not the bad luck he had near the end that drove him to abandon, the only Toyota official. This fight between the three Toyota drivers for the prominent places behind the Peugeot animated the second week, they end up with two cars on the podium, but they are slow to get more than that. Maybe for the year ...In the Mini, the only driver in the top 10 of the German team, Jakub Przygonski, is only fifth, because of the departures and delays ahead of him. Khalid Al Qassimi is expected to finish sixth with Peugeot last year, ahead of Martin Prokop with a very positive Dakar with his Ford Ranger. To the tenth place, only Toyota. Peter van Merksteijn, Sebastian Halpern and Lucio Alvarez, who yesterday shone with second place.From 12.34 in mainland Portugal, and 119 km later we will know who is the winner of the Dakar.

José Luis Abreu, direto de Portugal