Dakar | Challenger: Cristina Gutierrez triumphs and makes history

Among the most beautiful stories given by the 46th edition of the Dakar, the one that ended today, stands out the one signed by a driver, among other things very strong, capable of winning the Challenger class of the most important rally raid.

We are talking about Cristina Gutierrez Herrero, driver of the Red Bull Off-Road Jr USA by BFG team, Spanish born in 1991, who for years now has been achieving excellent results in the support classes to the Car class in rally raids. The 32-year-old achieved success on a Taurus T3 Max in the Lightweight Prototype Cross Country class.

During the past editions of the Dakar, Gutierrez had managed to take stage victories in the same category and fight for the top positions in the general classification. This time she battled bitterly with Mitchell Guthrie, a teammate who, in turn, had achieved important results in recent years.

The Challenger general classification was decided in the last kilometers between yesterday and today, with Guthrie losing ground due to a problem, while Cristina Gutierrez Herrero was very good at maintaining a competitive pace, without taking excessive risks.

The tactic paid off, so much so that it led her to win the class and take home the first overall victory of her career in the Dakar. Guthrie missed the opportunity to win a few kilometers into the stage, stopping around kilometer 17.

Cristina thus became the second woman to win the Dakar in one of its categories, writing a new page in the history of motorsport with an author's signature. The first to succeed in the feat was Jutta Kleinschmidt, who in 2001 won the overall Auto class navigated by her compatriot Andreas Schulz and at the wheel of a Mitsubishi Pajero.

Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool

#302 Red Bull Can-Am Factory Team: Cristina Gutierrez, Pablo Moreno Huete

Furthermore, Jutta Kleinschmidt came close to granting an encore the following year, winning two stages and finishing in second place overall. In 2005, at the wheel of a Volkswagen Touareg, she finished third navigated by the Italian Fabrizia Pons.

There couldn't have been a better calling card for Gutierrez Herrero in view of 2025. In fact, let's remember that the girl originally from Burgos, Spain, has already been announced as an official Dacia driver in next year's Dakar. She will be the new teammate of Sébastien Loeb and Nasser Al-Attiyah, always assuming that the Qatari backs down after the recent statements in which he stated that he no longer wants to drive Hunter.