DAKAR 2025

Carlos Sainz rolls over: his Dakar is in danger

The 48 Hours stage was expected to be decisive, diabolical and very hard... and, unfortunately, it was Carlos Sainz and Lucas Cruz who suffered an unexpected fate.

The Madrid-born and Catalan Ford riders rolled over at kilometre 327 (shortly after 10:00 Spanish time), after cresting a dune that formed part of the central area of ​​the route. At that moment, the Spanish pair were opening the track. The organisation reported that both were fine and that they had the support of Mitch Guthrie, their American teammate.

He gave up a minute... The damage to the Raptor seems significant and concentrated in the rear, according to the first images of the accident. The organisation explained to this newspaper that Sainz tried to resume the march (something that, according to the track on the Dakar website, happened at 10:28), but stopped immediately. Shortly afterwards he started up again and is already running and still in the race. Initial references speak of a loss of around 43 minutes with respect to Nasser Al-Attiyah.

The options for the Madrid native now involve trying to maintain the highest possible pace with the damage to the car. The option that tonight the Ford assistance trucks (numbers 625, 636 and 638) can reach the same point as the Madrid native's Raptor are practically nil, so they will have to manage on their own, with the only help from his teammate Mitch Guthrie, who remains at his side.

The most inopportune day... Sainz's accident comes at the most inopportune moment possible, the only one in which none of the drivers would want to have such a problem. Because the mechanics of the 48 Hours stage mean that they will have to resolve the repairs themselves.

Now, Sainz and Cruz will have to advance as far as possible until they reach the area where the six camps are set up where the Dakar 2025 drivers will spend the night. These are located at kilometres 491, 520, 546, 608, 626 and 671. Each one will close at a specific time: the first at 15:30, the second and third at 16:15, the fourth at 16:45, the fifth at 17:15 and the last at 17:45. For example, if Sainz is driving at kilometre 490 at 15:30, he will have to stop at 491, but if he passes that point before the closing time, he will have to continue to the next one. With such a gap, it will be impossible for the service trucks - which leave much later than the cars - to finish at the same point as Sainz... with the only exception being that the Spaniard stops at the first camp (although this would mean that he has lost a lot of time along the way). The normal thing is that tonight Sainz and Cruz, with the help of Mitch Guthrie, will have to try to resolve this mess.

Enrique Naranjo