The 48-hour stage of the Dakar scheduled in the Empty Quarter made entirely of dunes began this morning and immediately brought twists and uncertainty. Yazeed Al Rajhi, until yesterday leader of the general classification dedicated to cars, was forced to retire due to a bad accident which occurred in the early stages of today's stage and thus left the way free for Nasser Al-Attiyah and Carlos Sainz to fight to become the new reference.
As we explained yesterday, today there is no official ranking because each rider had the opportunity to choose which of the 7 bivouacs to stop at. This created such a staggering among the drivers that it was not possible to establish a real ranking, although at the last point of the stage in which all the best passed, the provisional leader was Carlos Sainz.
But let's go in order. Most of the drivers chose to stop at bivouac D, the fourth of the 7 created by the rally raid organisation. Among these Carlos Sainz, Sébastien Loeb, Lucas Moraes, Seth Quintero, Martin Prokop, Guillaume De Mevius, Giniel De Villiers, Nani Roma, Mathieu Serradori. Among the high ranking riders, Stéphane Peterhansel stopped instead at bivouac C, the previous one, but seriously behind the leaders of the virtual ranking of the maxi stage.
Peterhansel faced a very difficult stage, in which he had to deal with a puncture and a problem with the hydraulic system. He thus lost the power steering of his Audi RS Q e-tron, losing many minutes from the best and, perhaps, even the chance to fight for the podium.
Some drivers who have ambitions for the ranking, however, have inclined to stop at bivouac E. Among these Nasser Al-Attiyah, Prodrive Nasser Team driver, Mattias Ekstroem of Audi Sport and Guerlain Chicherit on the Toyota GR Hilux T1U of the Overdrive Racing team. For this reason, drawing up a certain ranking makes relative sense.
Yet, taking bivouac C and D as a reference, Carlos Sainz finds himself virtually at the head of the stage and of the general Car classification. The Madrilenian leads the proceedings with about 4 and a half minutes ahead of his teammate Mattias Ekstroem, second, and with 5 minutes on Sébastien Loeb's Hunter Prodrive BRX. Al-Attiyah, Sainz's main rival, is sixth, but over 24 minutes behind him.
The second part of Stage 6, which we will call 6B, will take place tomorrow and will give much more precise indications regarding the new general Car classification of the 46th edition of the Dakar. What is certain is that Al Rajhi will no longer be in the game and Toyota, barring sensational twists, will have no opportunity to bring home the final success.
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