RALLY DAKAR 2023

Carlos Sainz: "We were lucky that something more serious didn't happen, it was an ugly place"

Carlos Sainz and Lucas Cruz explained today the details of the accident they suffered yesterday on stage 7 of the 2023 Dakar Rally that ended their chances of winning this edition.(image above)

"Lucky something more serious didn't happen"

Sainz recounted the film of the stage and how they arrived at the accident area in this way: "At first I started well, but around kilometer 120 or 130 I had a strong impact that hurt my neck in the right area and from then on there we were more careful. Stephane caught us before neutralization and then we let him pass. I got behind him to follow him, at about 30 or 40 meters. That way you have the advantage that we could see what was ahead. I trusted him 100%, I was close to him, in the dust, when he came to a crest on a left... and the next thing was the two cars flying."

Sainz described the place of the accident as "ugly", a change in height of "about five or six meters", and feared that the consequences could have been worse: "I remember flying off and landing. I broke the suspension, but he [by Peterhansel] lost consciousness, I stayed under the jump and he turned around. I thought it would be for me but what happened is that he had been knocked out", thus corroborating the shocking account of the events that he has also made today in 14 times Dakar winner.

"I ran to see what was happening to them," continues the Spaniard. "Edouard was unwell and Stephane didn't know where he was. It was lucky something more serious didn't happen. Fortunately Edouard [Boulanger, Monsieur Dakar's co-driver] is fine."

Goodbye to the chances of victory... The main thing is that none of the four crew members have suffered serious physical damage, although the French co-driver will have to undergo surgery in Munich for a fracture of his D5 vertebra. But the Spaniard's car was destroyed because the blow from the impact was carried by a single wheel.

"We landed on only one wheel because we were turning and we broke the entire left front suspension," says Sainz, who, seeing the wheel torn off, already knew that his Dakar was over: "We had to wait for the truck, so we lost a lot of time and we couldn't finish the stage.

Last night the Audi team, with mechanics from Peterhansel and Sainz working as one, managed to repair the car in time for today's stage: "The team repaired it very well, it went well today, but Mattias had a problem and we had to give it all the left rear suspension, and then wait for the truck to be able to continue".

Sainz managed to score a second best partial in the first part of the stage, but in the end he lost another three and a half hours (3h 28:11, specifically) due to assisting his teammate and was ranked 131st in the stage .

Enrique Naranjo