Tenth stage, a thousand emotions
What happened in the tenth stage of the Dakar 2024 was incredible, with an initial episode that could seriously reopen the fight for victory due to the sensational technical problem occurred to the leader Carlos Sainz. The Spaniard, thanks to the decisive intervention of his teammate Mattias Ekström, managed to resume the stage despite losing time on Sebastien Loeb, with the Frenchman having thus recovered ground on his rival and leader of the general classification. However, the dreams of a comeback have partially vanished precisely because of this another problem which stopped the Prodrive. Again, the nine-time WRC world champion managed to get back on track, but recovered 7 minutes to the Audi driver.
One stop after another
Two stages before the end of this year's edition, other twists occurred which initially seemed to be decisive for the evolution of the general ranking. The first two put Carlos Sainz, who had started the stage, in serious difficulty 371 km to Al Ula with a 20 minute lead over Loeb. After a fault with GPS tracking system, the Spaniard then stopped due to a technical problem. The strategy adopted by Audi fortunately helped the 61-year-old from Madrid, who restarted thanks to the assistance provided by teammate Mattias Ekström, out of the fight for victory. In all these operations, the Ferrari driver's father lost just over a quarter of an hour, which was essential to reactivate Loeb's hopes of a comeback. The Frenchman, who on the contrary cannot enjoy assistance like that available for Sainz, however also had to deal with another technical problem in the following kilometres. Also in this case, the nine-time WRC champion necessarily had to stop, only to restart regularly after losing minutes. In all of this, the two main protagonists were unable to fight for the victory on the stage, which ended with Toyota's best time Guerlain Chicherit, but Loeb's stop saved Sainz's lead. The Spaniard, in fact, is still at the top of the final ranking, but with a smaller advantage over Loeb, equal to just over 13 minuteswith both drivers outside the top-10 of today's stage.
Dakar 2024, Car ranking – Stage 10 (Top-10)
| POS | PILOT | CAR | TIME / GAP |
| 1 | Chicherit – Winocq | Toyota | 3:19.27 |
| 2 | Baragwanath – Cremer | Century | +5.43 |
| 3 | Vanagas – Sikk | Toyota | +6.04 |
| 4 | Amos – Chickpeas | Toyota | +6.09 |
| 5 | Dumas – Dolphin | Toyota | +7.12 |
| 6 | Serradori – Minaudier | Century | +10.03 |
| 7 | Baumgart – Andreotti | Prodrive | +10.21 |
| 8 | Yacopini – Carreras | Toyota | +10.27 |
| 9 | Prokop – Chytka | Ford | +11.58 |
| 10 | De Mevius – Panseri | Toyota | +12.01 |
Dakar 2024, General car ranking after stage 10 (Top-10)
| POS | PILOT | CAR | TIME / GAP |
| 1 | Sainz–Cruz | Audi | 41:35.12 |
| 2 | Loeb–Lurquin | Prodrive | +13.22 |
| 3 | Moraes – Monleon | Toyota | +1:02.44 |
| 4 | De Mevius – Panseri | Toyota | +1:27.09 |
| 5 | Chicherit – Winocq | Toyota | +1:47.55 |
| 6 | Serradori – Minaudier | Century | +1:48.59 |
| 7 | Prokop – Chytka | Ford | +1:59.58 |
| 8 | De Villiers–Murphy | Toyota | +2:17.20 |
| 9 | Botteril – Cummings | Toyota | +2:24.26 |
| 10 | Vanagas – Sikk | Toyota | +2:40.51 |
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