Carlos Sainz, champion of the 2024 Dakar Rally, became a legend and set a record

The Spanish Carlos Sainz won his fourth Dakar this Friday on a day in which he met the Olympus of motorsports, the one made up of names such as the German Michael Schumacher, the Brazilian Ayrton Senna or the Frenchman Stéphane Peterhansel, and he became, if possible, a legend of this sport.

Sainz and his tireless companion in suffering, the Catalan Lucas Cruz, the Madrid native's co-pilot, made history by becoming the first racers to turn a hybrid car into Dakar championan unimaginable milestone at the height of a 61-year-old driver, like Sainz, raising his fourth Touareg.

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He also did it forcefully, because after the Frenchman Sébastien Loeb's breakdown during the day this Thursday, The Spaniard finished the test with more than one hour and twenty minutes over the Belgian Guillaume de Mevius (Toyota), second classified ahead of Loeb, who finished on the third step of the podium.

Despite not winning any stage, the Madrid driver and the Catalan co-driver showed off for a good part of the Dakar and, in the three most complicated stages, they were the main protagonists; They came second in a first day full of stones and punctures, second in the sixth, a 48-hour time trial through the largest sand desert in the last and third in the penultimate, another marathon of stones in which Sainz slowed down after seeing the Loeb's breakdown, aware that no one could come close to his overall times.

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Another of the big differences with respect to its rivals was the perfect functioning of its Audi, a vehicle that the brand itself commented had twice the chance of stopping than other vehicles, but which, however, did not cause any problems during the ride. Dakar rally. In fact, The biggest drawback for Sainz was not understanding the punctures.

“Going fast, spike; Going slowly, I still get stuck… in the end you don't know what to do,” Sainz stressed last Wednesday. However, it is a totally lesser evil for a Dakar marked, beyond the exuberance of the Madrid native, by the problems that left Sainz without big favorites to face.

The Saudi Jazeed Al Rajhi (Toyota), leader from the third stage to the sixth day, rolled over the dunes on the first of the two days that lasted the queen stage of the Dakar. On the second day of that stage, the Qatari Nasser Al-Attiyah (Prodrive), knowing that Sainz had been opening up to a 25-minute lead, tried to go all out, but the Dakar did not give him the chance to revalidate for the third year. consecutively the Touareg and lost more than an hour due to a mechanical breakdown.

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From then on, it was a matter of managing efforts. The Spaniard had more than twenty minutes on the Swede Mattias Ekström (Audi) and just over thirty on Loeb. The first to fall was the Swede, whose two-hour breakdown made him forget about his chances of fighting for the general classification.

For his part, Loeb lost and said goodbye to his options this past Thursday, when a suspension breakdown relegated him to third place, losing more than an hour and a quarter compared to Sainz.

Thus, this last 174 km stage that Loeb won was a triumphant ride for the Madrid native, who He thus becomes the first driver in the history of the Dakar to win with four different brands and the oldest to do so, at more than 61 years old..

EFE

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