Stage of heart attack for Carlos Sainz (Audi) on the final stretch of the Dakar. After three punctures and seeing his lead shrink to just over 4 minutes behind Sébastien Loeb (Prodrive), the Spanish driver managed to recover seven of the sixteen minutes he had lost over the Frenchman. Thus, Sainz saved his first place in the general and remained 13 minutes and 22 seconds away from his pursuer.
The Madrid driver was not the only driver with technical problems, as Loeb also had to stop for about five minutes, apparently due to a puncture. A circumstance that Sainz took advantage of to gain some time, once recovered from his stops to change tyres, which forced him to stop, in his case, for more than 18 minutes.
"It has been a stage of many stones, many more than we expected. We saw that we advanced, Loeb and I were going slowly, without taking any kind of risk, and even so we punctured three times", said a now less stressed Sainz at the finish line.
Stéphane Peterhansel and Mattias Ekström, Sainz's teammates at Audi, played a decisive role in the stage. Thanks to them, the Spaniard got spare wheels as quickly as possible. On the contrary, Loeb no longer has the support of his teammate and reigning champion Nasser al-Attiyah, who withdrew from the competition.
"It has been a hard day. We had a problem with the cat and had no choice but to get the car up on some rocks to change the two tires from the last puncture. I wasted 15 minutes. It's a bit frustrating, of course, but the stages are tough and Carlos has also lost time", Loeb consoled himself.
In motorcycles, the Hondas swept and took the first three places of the stage. In first position, the American Ricky Brabec (Honda) managed to gain minutes on Ross Branch (Hero) and remains the overall leader with 10 minutes and 54 seconds over the Botswana rider. The Hero rider, who lost power in the second half of the stage, crossed the finish line in seventh position. As a result, Branch is finally 10 minutes and 54 seconds behind Brabec. A time that puts his second place in the general at risk: Adrien van Beveren and Nacho Cornejo, both Hondas, are hot on his heels.
The Frenchman, third in yesterday's stage, is approaching the second step of the podium, less than a minute away. The Chilean, meanwhile, is 2 minutes and 2 seconds behind Van Beveren and 2 minutes and 56 seconds behind Brabec.
