Dakar 2023, stage 5: Al-Attiyah deals another blow to Sainz for second

Tension was high after the complaint of Nasser Al-Attiyah and his co-driver Matthieu Baumelwhere they said the FIA ​​”killed the race” by giving 11 more horsepower to the Audis, with a subsequent response from Mattias Ekström or Sven Quandt, head of X-raid and Q Motorsport, structure that manages the Audi team in Dakar. In theory, the FIA ​​was blunt after drawing up the power change regulation with the teams, who said they could increase the horsepower of one of the top-class cars if there were big differences. It is absolutely forbidden to complain publicly. And Nasser and his ‘copy’, in the first change, are comfortable in their social networks to delete their publications. Things are heating up and the FIA ​​has already filed a complaint with several commissioners who now have a big hot potato on their desks. Will they punish the Qataris for their protests? Pending a resolution, Al-Attiyah exited stage 5 this Thursday. He warned yesterday that this would be a good day to increase his margin in the general and he did. He won the stage with a 1’57” advantage over Carlos Sainz, who finished in second position.

His main pursuers were more defeated. Al-Rajhi, who started 18 minutes away in the general classification, was fourth, surrendering 8’43 more. And Peterhansel, who also started 18 minutes behind in the classification, was third in 3’44”. Nasser continued to increase his lead, waiting to find out if he would finally get some time off or if he would incur some sort of penalty. He spoke more than necessary off the track, but he sent a perfect message of strength on the sands of a 373 km stage of pure sand and sand.

after what happened, Nasser Al-Attiyah increasing his margin on the race leader to 22′ 36” with respect to ‘Monsieur Dakar’ Stéphane peterhansel and 27’01” about Al-Rajhi. Carlos Sainz remains in fourth position at 34′ 52” and the script predicted by Carlos will come true: in 100% sand stages, the possibility of big surprises is less, because punctures are no longer common or they are decisive as before. in stages 2 and 3, it is important to give Nasser a margin, who so far manages like a charm, feeling at home in the desert.

For his part, Sebastien Loebwho was already out of contention after his three holes in stage 2, went from winning yesterday to suffering again in stage 5. The French driver rolled over and had to fix his BRX. He crossed the finish line giving up another 20 minutes, leaving him with 1 hour and 53 minutes overall.

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Laia Sanz had an accident

Laia Sainz and her co-driver Maurizio Gerini had an accident at kilometer 28 of stage 5. The car was badly damaged, but with the help of the ‘backpacker’ car that Astara had in the race and the truck, it was finally done them. to perform a car repair miracle in the desert. Laia managed to resume her march after about 4 hours, but she had a difficult challenge ahead. He had to do about 200 kilometers of sand dunes in two hours to pass the next time point so they wouldn’t take him out of the race. And if he succeeds, he has to reach the end of the special before his time limit (21.47). A very complicated challenge that Laia wants to achieve in order not to leave a Dakar for the first time. If he does not follow the schedule, he can continue the race as ‘Dakar Experience’, as a re-engagement, but it will not count as a ‘finisher’, so statistically it will count as his first abandonment in 13 participations and on the final podium they won’t give him a finisher’s medal.