by VALERIO BARRETTA
Dakar, Sainz leader
A single man in command in the 2024 Dakar. Even on a day that saw him in difficulty, Carlos Sainz he managed to gain ground on Sebastien Loeb and to build a nest egg of 24'47” in the general classification on the French driver thanks to a navigation error by the main Prodrive crew at km 390.
Sainz's words
In the 458 km special from Duwadimi to Ha'il the three-time Dakar winner took another step towards poker, but he doesn't want to rest on his laurels, because there are still four stages to go: “This stage had two completely different parts, the first was sand and the second was rocks. We went well, we had no problems and no punctures“.
“Everything went fine. I'm happy to have made it through another day, but there's still a long way to go for me and the stages are long. You can see how easy it is to lose five or ten minutes in the Dakar, it's very simple. Between navigation, punctures and more it's a very stressful competition“, he concluded.
Today Sainz and the other competitors will face a 417 kilometer special, from Ha'il to Alula. For Loeb it will be one of the last chances to close the gap to Sainz: without problems for the Spaniard it will still be difficult to gain the leadership of the Desert Marathon.
#Dakar #Sainz #guard #There39s #lot
