The drivers were ready to compete in the new 48-hour stage, a special divided into two days in which the cars will have to complete 549 kilometres. Aware of the dangers that could exist, many started calmly so as not to have any problems and arrive safely at one of the seven bivouacs at 4pm local time, when the race will be interrupted for today.
However, at kilometer 51, the leader of the overall car classification, Yazeed Al-Rajhi, suffered a serious accident in one of the dunes and seriously damaged his car, thus saying goodbye to any chance of winning the Touareg trophy.
The Saudi, if he manages to recover his Toyota Hilux, will be able to return and continue competing, but without the possibility of winning the overall victory in the 2024 Dakar Rally.
It all started without major complications, although as expected, with Nasser Al-Attiyah losing some time compared to his opponents, which allowed Carlos Sainz to overtake him in the standings, but after the first kilometers came the surprise of the leader's knockout.
The uncertainty of not knowing what they would find was heightened by the fact that it was a new stage format and organizers advised that Yazeed Al Rajhi will have a chance to re-enter the rally if he manages to get his Hilux out of the dunes.
It is a very similar situation to that suffered by the Spaniard in the last edition, when he had an accident that made him lose all chances of overall victory, but he was able to compete for stage victories with his Audi. With the Saudi's accident, it is Sainz who takes back the lead of the Dakar, even if there are still many kilometers to go before arriving at the Shubaytah bivouac, from where he will fly to Riyadh for the rest day.
As for the start of the special, the times could have been quite representative, with the German cars very fast in the dunes thanks to their electric power, given that they had their three vehicles in the top four places at the arrival of the first checkpoint, with Carlos Sainz ahead of Stéphane Peterhansel, while Mattias Ekstrom was in fourth place.
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