DAKAR 2024

Carlos Sainz and Lucas Cruz sentence the 2024 Dakar Rally to the champion

Carlos Sainz and Lucas Cruz today confirmed their fourth victory in the Dakar Rally. The Madrid native and the Catalan have completed the dreaded scree stage towards Yanbu (420 kilometers) without any problem... but not their great rival, Sébastien Loeb, who had a new breakdown in his fragile Hunter once again leaving him composed and without Dakar.

Still... we should have seen if the nine-time world rally champion could have beaten Sainz, who set an infernal pace from the start. In fact, he dominated the stage until the last 90 km.

Less tension than expected... A very tense day was expected, based on the instructions of the organization and what was studied by the teams, fearful of the havoc that the stones that covered 20% of today's route could cause... but it turned out to be a quieter day than expected.

Especially since Loeb was out of action relatively soon. Specifically, at kilometer 132, when after landing on a jump he broke the right front suspension fork. A part for which he did not have a spare part, which required the assistance of the BRX team truck - which the Frenchman immediately requested -... But finally he had a faster solution: the same part from the Hunter of the Chinese Zi Yungang (YunXiang ).

This improvised loan, at least, will allow the Frenchman to save the podium (who later also suffered a puncture). Of course, one step below the one he occupied today because the time left today places him behind even Guillaume De Mevius (Toyota). It will be Loeb's fifth podium in eight appearances... although never from the top.

Sainz, devastating...Today Sainz came out strong on the stage, with the certainty that Ekström was riding behind him (he started six minutes away), while Audi planned to stop Peterhansel after refueling to cover the Spaniard more closely.

The Madrid native - who had the help of Laia Sanz, who stopped to let him pass as she started just in front of his boss in the Extreme E - was beating Loeb by 20 seconds before the Frenchman's breakdown. Sainz passed by him and, surely, at that moment he breathed a sigh of relief and felt like a champion.

Even so, Sainz did not slow down until that final stretch, in which a slow puncture and caution, knowing he was practically the winner of the race, made partial victory slip away from him. It doesn't matter, because glory awaits him tomorrow on the shores of the Red Sea.

Only 175 kilometers separate the Madrid native from a historic victory. Audi

"The stage was clean. We only had one slow puncture in the final part. When we saw Seb we took it with more caution. It was very difficult, with a lot of stones, sometimes you couldn't even see five meters away and you needed luck "We have sometimes driven very, very slowly, but even then you can get a puncture," he explained at the finish line.

When Sainz learned that his distance from Loeb was at least an hour, he breathed more relieved: "With an hour difference... I'm calmer, but there are still 175 kilometers left. I know that in this rally we have to cross the finish line and that is what we are going to try tomorrow. We are going to concentrate on it, to take a good look at the car, because the stage has been very hard."

It will be when the 175 kilometers of triumphant walk are completed for the Madrid native, who will have more than an hour to be crowned four-time champion.

Loeb was not the only one affected by the penultimate day of the Dakar. Lucas Moraes and Armand Monleón (Toyota) have suffered punctures on the scree on the way to Yanbu and have lost the third step of the podium (or even the second, which was theirs for a few moments after Loeb's problem) in favor of Guillaume de Mevius.

General classification in cars-Dakar 2024:

1-Carlos Sainz/Lucas Cruz (Audi) - 46h 23:4

2-Guillaume De Mevius/Xavier Panseri (Toyota) 1h 27:0

3-Sebastien Loeb/Fabian Lurquin (BRX) 1h 35:0

4-Guerlain Chicherit/Alex Qinocq (Toyota) 1h 42:2

5-Martin Prokop/Viktor Chytka (Ford) 2h 17:47

6-Guy David Botterill/Brett Cummings (Toyota) 2h 41:31

7-Giniel De Villiers/Dennis Murphy (Toyota) 2h 51:09

8-Benediktas Vanagas/Kuldar Sikk (Toyota) 3h 01:3

9-Mathieu Serradori/Loic Minaudier (Century) 3h 09:17

10-Dennis Krotov/Konstantin Zhiltsov (Toyota) 3h 43:49

​by: Enrique Naranjo