RALLY DAKAR 2023

The Audi debacle continues: Sainz resigns from the stage to help Ekström

The seventh stage of the Dakar 2023, as expected, has shown a totally different panorama from that of previous days. With Nasser Al-Attiyah very prominent and almost without rivals, the fight for the win has been wide open. In the end, it was taken by the Saudi Yazeed Al-Rajhi (Toyota), who added his first victory in this Dakar with the Toyota.

As expected, Nasser Al-Attiyah took the stage very calmly and dropped 19 minutes and 12 seconds behind the winner. "It was the plan, take it more calmly today, let Loeb pass him and open the track [let's not forget that today, without the motorcycles, the cars were the real track openers] so as not to take risks], because we believe that the stage tomorrow it will be more dangerous", explained from Toyota to MARCA.

Sainz and Cruz return to the fight...Carlos Sainz and Lucas Cruz were able to dispute the victory in the stage after their mechanics fixed the Audi RS Q e-tron E2 just in time to leave the camp at the estimated time, 6:08 in the morning (if they had passed it would have been suffered a 10 second penalty for each minute of delay).

In fact, during the first half of the special it seemed that the pace of the Spaniard was good enough to dispute the victory (he managed to set the second best partial at kilometer 90), but in the last 150 the chances vanished. In addition, Sainz had to do teamwork in the final part.

Ekstrom, also KO...Because, if yesterday Audi lost its two kings, today the horse has also fallen. Mattias Ekström, who had gone on the attack to try to gain positions in the general classification and get closer to that goal of the podium -the one that had been officially set at Audi for this year- saw his hopes vanish in the kilometer

An impact against a stone destroyed a left rear suspension arm of his Audi RS Q e-tron E2, with such extensive damage that repairs are still ongoing. Carlos Sainz and Lucas Cruz themselves stopped to assist the Swede in the tasks to try to minimize the losses, which in any case will be so great that they mean the end of the Swede's aspirations to the drawer.

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