The Dakar champion has been left on the ropes. Carlos Sainz and his co-driver Lucas Cruz suffered a rollover in the first part of the second stage of the rally, the dreaded Chrono 48 hours (967 km in two days), they were stopped for more than 20 minutes to repair their Ford Raptor, and they crashed almost three quarters of an hour behind the provisional leader of the stage, the Saudi Yazeed Al Rajhi (Toyota).
Sainz suffered the accident in a dune area at kilometer 327 of the timed special. The man from Madrid overturned the Ford Raptor, which was badly damaged in the central part of the body. Both Sainz and his co-pilot, the Catalan Lucas Cruz, did not suffer physical damage.
Ford teammate Mitch Guthrie stopped to assist them and help them repair the damage. They had to be stopped for 23 minutes, but they were able to get back on track, with the uncertainty of the impact on the mechanics and what pace they could set to cut the lost time.
At the control of kilometer 373 of the special, the Madrid-Catalan couple, who were eighth overall after the first stage, passed in 30th place, 43m14s behind the provisional leader, Yazeed Al Rajhi.
At that point, the Saudi was 2m14s ahead of Nasser Al Attiyah (Dacia) and 3m01s ahead of Nani Roma and Àlex Haro (Ford), who were doing a very good stage.
Another of the car candidates, Brazilian Lucas Moraes, co-driven by Armand Monleon, also suffered problems, getting stuck on a dune.
The abandonment of Laia Sanz
“The FIA does not want to take that responsibility, if something had happened later it is a brown mark. His decision is understandable, but it’s a bitch.”
The second stage of the Dakar rally (967 km in two days), one of the toughest of this 47th edition, could not count on the participation of Laia Sanz, who had to withdraw from the competition for breaking the safety arch of his Century in a rollover on the first stage. It is the first time in 15 participations that the driver from Corbera de Llobregat has not been able to finish the rally.
The bar on the safety arch of her Century – the one that passes just above the driver’s head – was bent just two millimeters, enough for the FIA stewards to not allow her to start.
“The team’s engineers said that nothing would have happened, but it is also understood that in the end, the people of the FIA do not want to take that responsibility, if something had happened later, because in the end it is a mess. Their decision is understandable, but it is a bitch,” the Catalan pilot said in the morning.
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