RALLY DAKAR 2024

Carlos Sainz, master of strategy, is virtual leader of the Dakar

Carlos Sainz is the big winner of the first part of the 48 Hours stage. The man from Madrid, once again, has shown his class at a key moment of the Dakar to climb into the lead (provisional, since the stage will not conclude until it is completed tomorrow) and, above all, eliminate two difficult rivals.

Because Al-Rajhi has already gone home and Peterhansel has lost all his options, barring general disaster. And Stéphane Peterhansel has also said goodbye - although in his case he is still in the race -... and tomorrow it is likely that he will leave even more time.

Carlos Sainz got it right... It was soon seen that, indeed, the path chosen by Sainz and Peterhansel was the right one. Al-Attiyah, an old Dakarian fox, soon saw the danger of opening a track and handed over the baton to Frenchman Guerlain Chicherit (Toyota). In that maneuver he lost eight minutes with Sainz in the first 50 kilometers.

Afterwards, the race stabilized, always with Sainz in the lead and progressively increasing his distance from Al-Attiyah, until at kilometer 225 Peterhansel removed a tire from his Audi and, when changing it, his jack got stuck due to a failure in the hydraulic system. (which also left him without power steering), making him lose almost two hours in the maneuver. That is, all his options for victory.

Sainz, Ekström and Loeb always remained in the lead with a margin of about five minutes between them, although they ended up in different camps. The Swede arrived to the E, like Al-Attiyah, while Sainz and Loeb will sleep a few kilometers before, in camp D.

Therefore, that point, D, which everyone has already passed, is the one that serves as a reference to know the real situation of the day. There Sainz leads with 5:10 over Ekström (be careful with the Swede) and 5:58 over Loeb. His lead over Al-Attiyah there is almost 25 minutes. A good blow to the aspirations of the current winner... but still nothing definitive.

If the stage ended like this, Sainz would lead with almost 16 minutes over Ekström and 21:41 over Nasser Al-Attiyah. Loeb, fourth in the virtual general classification, closes the group of candidates for victory with a disadvantage of 36:51. The rest already travel more than an hour from Spain.

Al-Rajhi, Yacopini... bad day for Toyota... The big loser of the day, without a doubt, was the Saudi Yazeed Al-Rajhi, leader of the car category until today. The Toyota mainstay had a serious accident at kilometer 52 that destroyed his Hilux and forced him to abandon the Dakar 2024.

"After kilometer 51, everything was going well on a completely flat chott, we were going at full speed and I collided with something, we rolled several times and the car was damaged," explained Al-Rajhi regarding that incident... which was not the only one for Toyotas.

Yacopini and Oliveras' 'Argentine-Spanish' Hilux had serious mechanical problems that cost them almost three hours (and be careful because they may not have mechanical assistance when they stop).

Tomorrow, the rest of the day... Tomorrow, Friday, very early (at 6:15 local, 4:15 in Spain) the pilots will complete the 48-hour stage. Al-Attiyah will have to open the track again during the remaining 112 kilometers, while Sainz could continue increasing his distance in the remaining 145 to complete a very interesting stage that will surely be repeated in future editions.

Enrique Naranjo