Dakar 2023, Stage 3: Problems for Carlos Sainz, but he continues his march

Carlos Sainz and Lucas Cruz they have before them a perfect stage to extend their lead in Dakar this Tuesday. They fully complied with the difficult ballot given to them in stage 2, a very difficult day full of rocks and stones where the Spanish Audi crew managed to stay in front of the general classification with 2’12 ” margin is done Al-Attiyah. The Qatari had to open the track in stage 3 and the Madrid driver could give another blow in the form of time in a 447-kilometer special. They embroider it. Carlos was second fastest at kilometer 184 of the special, just a few seconds behind Al-Rajhi and takes more than 9 minutes from Nasser. However, it all went wrong with a problem with his left rear wheel around 10:00 am (Spanish time), with Carlos missing around 33 minutes to fix a problem with his left rear wheel suspension linkage.

The Dakar organization announced at the Ha’il bivouac that Carlos Sainz and Lucas Cruz stopped at kilometer 213 of this stage 3, with almost half a stage remaining, due to a setback in the left rear tire. Shrinkage has to do with suspension linkage.

The driver and co-driver had to get out of their car to fix the damage, losing around 33 minutes which would have cost them all of their overall advantage. However, if Sainz can attack again without further hiccups on the day, the lost half hour should allow him to stay in contention for all.

At the 240 kilometer checkpoint, Carlos Sainz passed 38’14” off the best time. At that point, Al-Attiyah surrendered 11’46”, so Nasser was ahead of him by about 26 minutes. If this is the case, Carlos will be 24 minutes behind the Qatari in general, keeping his options to fight for everything, thus saving a big scare that could have left him in the game. Al-Attiyah continued to open the track with Van Loon with 200 kilometers to gofor Carlos to try to cut his losses by attacking and taking advantage of the fact that Al-Attiyah might lose some time.