The man from Madrid withstood the onslaught of Al-Attiyah, more of a leader than ever, while the man from Castellón suffered a serious accident and reached the finish line thinking of retreating
Ha’il’s second loop that formed the fifth stage of the 2023 Dakar arrived shrouded in controversy. The FIA decided to activate the ‘balance of benefits’ in favor of Audi, a system that allows them to open or close the cars’ power to match the competition in the event that they are under significant stress. Inherited from other championships such as the World Endurance Championship, Toyota raised the protest to the highest level when it was confirmed that Carlos Sainz, Stéphane Peterhansel and Mattias Ekstrom would have 8 kWh (about 11 hp) to help them track down the Toyotas, led by Nasser Al-Attiyah, who accused the International Federation and the Organization (ASO) of wanting to “kill” the Dakar.
With rumors that this accusation of favoritism from the Qataris could cost him a sporting sanction, he decided he couldn’t speculate and went on the offensive. While rare, as Al-Attiyah and his co-driver Baumel are not usually very proactive in this regard, they took advantage of the stage’s difficult dunes to send a warning to their competitors.
First up was Carlos Sainz, who again showed his guts despite a difficult day. At the finish he was just under two minutes behind Al-Attiyah, which, together with the problems of his rivals (especially Sebastien Loeb, who rolled in the final kilometers and lost almost 20 minutes), saved the day with great dignity . . The eternal Peterhansel, who crossed the finish line after the Spaniard, remains the first pursuer of Al-Attiyah, who remains in the lead at ‘Monsieur Dakar’ with 22:36. Sainz is more than half an hour behind.
However, during the fifth stage, Laia Sanz’s fortune ran out. At kilometer 28 of the daily special, his Astara capsized several times. The hard blow raised fears of something serious, although both she and her co-driver, Maurizio Gerini, were physically unharmed but morally shaken. The day before they had achieved a ‘top 20’ for the first time, which in the Catalan’s case was the first she had scored since moving to the cars, so she was stuffed. While waiting for the service truck, he had time to recover from the blow and consider whether it was worth continuing as his car was badly damaged.
After several hours and thanks to the help of the Astara assistance truck, driven by Javier Jacoste together with Juan Francisco Silva and José María Fontdevila, and Sergio Vallejo, a rallying legend in Spain making his debut at the Dakar, Sanz was able to continue to the finish , already thinking about the day of this Friday.
Barreda makes you hold your breath
After his heroic victory on Wednesday, Joan Barreda made all Dakar participants hold their breath. The man from Castellón crashed when the finish was already in sight, about 20 kilometers from the finish. While driving through the last dunes of the day, the Torreblanca rider and Toby Price, who was chasing him, crashed. According to Adrien van Beveren, they had to wake up the Spaniard because he had become unconscious.
Although medical protocol was to force him to leave immediately, as the regulations state, Barreda and Price were able to continue on their way and reach the finish, hooked to the new leader of the general classification. It was a stage with navigation problems, as expected. “I was a bit shocked, but then my teammates helped me and we reached the finish together. Now I’m going to try to recover and see how it goes tomorrow,” said Barreda at the finish.
Overall victory went to Van Beveren, who took advantage of bonuses for opening the track early in the day and helping Barreda and Price, followed by Nacho Cornejo. The General is led by Sam Howes, but less than a minute ahead of Kevin Benavides. Barreda, increasingly sore, drops to provisional sixth.
This Friday’s stage will be the longest of this Dakar, with 467 timed kilometers and another 409 liaison between Ha’il and Al Duwadimi. Very fast circuits early on – can Sainz, Peterhansel and Ekstrom take advantage of that extra 11 horsepower? – and then return to the areas with more dirt and sand. It will be a day of pure survival and with the chance of navigation problems. Nothing has been decided yet and there are two more stages, including the marathon, before the long-awaited rest day on Monday.
Source: La Verdad
I am Shawn Partain, a journalist and content creator working for the Today Times Live. I specialize in sports journalism, writing articles that cover major sporting events and news stories. With a passion for storytelling and an eye for detail, I strive to be accurate and insightful in my work.
