The Dakar 2024 in cars is practically a matter of two: Carlos Sainz against Sébastien Loeb, for many, the two best drivers in the history of rallying. The Spaniard and the Frenchman have been left alone at the top of the classification after another selective day, the seventh stage, in which the second overall, Mattias Ekström, the Madrid teammate in Audi, and Nani Roma (he was 12th) said goodbye. º) due to failure of the engine of your Ford. Thus, with five stages ahead, 1,901 km timed, Sainz has 19 minutes of margin over Loeb to lift his fourth Tuareg statuette.
“It was the worst stage of the rally so far, the longest, with a lot of navigation and many stones at the end of the special. We suffered a puncture in a rocky area, when I was going slowly. I don't understand. But we are here and we have overcome one of the most difficult stages that remained along with that of the penultimate day,” commented the Matador after finishing fourth place at the end of the 873 km beating (483 timed).
The Madrid native, who has hardly made any mistakes in this edition, regretted having given up 10 minutes to Loeb, winner of the day; That is to say, he has lost in a single day a third of the advantage he amassed. "It is enough; Séb has done really well,” he admitted, although today it should be in his favor to start fourth and the Frenchman first opening the track, with more risk of error. “Today he opened and beat us all, let's see tomorrow...”, the Spanish pilot relativized the advantage.
The stage claimed the abandonment of Ekström, due to a broken suspension on his Audi, and that of Nani Roma due to a "very serious" engine failure in his Ford Range. The one from Folgueroles, returning to the Dakar after a year of absence due to prostate cancer, will continue in the race – outside of classification – to accumulate experience and filming with the American 4x4.
Very outstanding was the performance of the two Spanish women in cars. Laia Sanz continues to have a splendid edition with the 20th position of the stage and rises to 15th overall, while Cristina Gutiérrez was 27th of the day and is second in the Challenger category (T3) after the disqualification of Goczal and his Catalan co-pilot, Oriol Mena, for a mechanical violation. The woman from Burgos is 33 minutes from the lead and is 18th in the overall car standings.
On motorcycles, the fight for the Tuareg became a little more compressed with the third stage victory of Nacho Cornejo (Honda). The general classification is on fire, with the leader, Ricky Brabec (Honda), separated by only one second from Ross Branch (Hero), and with the third, the Chilean Cornejo, at 6m48s. Van Beveren (4th at 14m39s) still maintains his options and somewhat less the current champion, KTM's main asset, Kevin Benavides, at more than 24m. The first Spaniard is Albert Martín, 37th... more than 8 hours away.
