Stage 10 of the 2024 Dakar was full of emotions due to the duel between Carlos Sainz and Sébastien Loeb. The Spanish rider had just over twenty minutes ahead of the Frenchman in the general classification, although he finished the 371 kilometers of timed route with around thirteen minutes of margin.
Having got out of his Audi RS Q e-tron, with which he suffered up to three punctures, he assisted the media, including Motorsport.com, and explained the details of a day in which he needed the help of his partner team member, Mattias Ekstrom, to overcome the rocky areas. The Swede gave his new tires to the Spaniard, and was stopped at kilometer 248 after these setbacks by the best placed of the three German cars.
After a swing of times, as his Bahraini rival Raid , much more than we expected.”
Photo by: Audi Communications Motorsport
#204 Team Audi Sport Audi RS Q e-tron E2: Carlos Sainz Sr, Lucas Cruz
“We saw that we had overtaken Loeb, and I was going slowly, without taking any kind of risk, and yet we punctured three times,” commented the Spaniard. “We had to wait for Mattias [Ekstrom] give us the tires to continue… you don't know what to do. Go slow and you get holes, go fast and you get holes anyway, and in the end you don't know what to do.”
“Imagine running out of tires and getting a puncture once again, we were stopped trying to repair, but, impossible,” continued the Audi driver, who insisted he had wasted time waiting for the Swede to come over. his assistance on the tenth special stage of the 2024 Dakar Rally. “We had to wait for Mattias, who left us his tyres.”
When asked if he thought the situation would get worse, with more minutes behind Sébastien Loeb, he replied: “Yes, I expected to lose more time because there was a moment when we were losing around 16 minutes. Then Loeb also got a puncture and at the end of the stage we went well, attacking, even though there was a lot of dust.”
#Dakar #Sainz #Ekstroem #gave #tyres
