Audi Sport immediately understood what it means to have a very complicated day in such a difficult rally raid as the Dakar. Carlos Sainz, on the other hand, knows it well, who has lived through a lot of Dakar, won as many as 3, and who today went through one of the most difficult days of his career.
One of Audi’s two top drivers, after opening the race with an excellent Prologue yesterday, faced well the first part of Stage 1, the first ring that brought the caravan from Ha’il to Ha’il , but arrived at kilometer 257 (of the 333 timed) he lost the route and, consequently, several minutes, until he accumulated a delay of over 2 hours from the leader of the general classification Nasser Al-Attiyah.
Sainz arrived at that point moments after Al-Attiyah and Sébastien Loeb, but was unable to find the WayPoint needed to continue. At that point the Madrid-born, together with the navigator Lucas Cruz, began to circle around the WP, going back and looking for it again. Their faces, once they arrived at the bivouac, were a whole program.
“I’m really disappointed with this stage. At the point where we struggled to find the WayPoint we saw a lot of vehicles having the same difficulties as us. Many of us didn’t quite understand what to do. Maybe Lucas (Cruz, the navigator, ed) can explain better what happened today “.
# 202 Team Audi Sport Audi: Carlos Sainz, Lucas Cruz
Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool
“There were an infinite number of cars, motorcycles and quads doing the same thing. I don’t know, we weren’t able to find it. It was a problem for me, but also for many others.
At that point it was natural to ask the three-time Dakar winner who had more responsibility for what happened today. “El Matador” tried to be diplomatic, but he used very clear words.
“How many drivers got lost at that point? Either we are all very stupid, or … I am very disappointed. If the organizers of the Dakar want to do this and are happy to see what happened on the second day, it is a shame” .
“If they ask you to follow an average route of 10 ° and sometimes there is a route of 350 or 300 ° … There is too big a difference from what the roadbook says. So it’s just too much,” concluded Sainz. .
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