Carlos Sainz crushes Al-Attiyah with a perfect plan and gives a big blow to Dakar 2024

On August 26, 1990, Carlos Sainz became the first non-Nordic driver to win the legendary 1000 Lagos, in Finland, where local drivers had been unstoppable for forty years. He did this by practicing like an obsessive in the sections, with endless tests and honest tests. He achieved that feat and he did it on a swollen and sore foot. An example of the importance of the Spanish driver in the World Rally Championship (WRC) beyond his two titles. He created the figure of a professional driver, who takes care of all kinds of details, a total driver, capable of being fast on all kinds of surfaces and terrains, something that was unthinkable a few years before . Now, 34 years later, at 61 years old, in Dakar, he not only continues to accelerate to the maximum, but he maintains his level of detail and demand and continues to set the standard in the home of his enemies. Carlos had a snack with Al-Attiyah in his garden. The Madrid pilot gave a recital in the Qatari’s most beloved and most famous territory, the sands of the dreaded ‘Empty Quarter’. He swept to regain the lead.

Carlos made the difference in his head, with a perfect and seamless plan, against a Nasser who took the test without studying, trusting purely in his intuition, his instinct on the surface that he knows like back of his hand. Sainz preferred to stop a few minutes before reaching the finish line of stage 5 to ensure a good starting position, starting away from the stage marked by all the red on the calendar as the most crucial and dangerous: the 48-minute marathon stage . time, special number 6 of 12 in this race. A journey of 600 kilometers spread over two days, completely sand.

The theory says that on a day like this, in the sand, the best thing is to leave to follow the tracks of the other competitors without getting lost and focus more on speeding up. But Nasser did not think in his head. He did it more on the accelerator. He attacked and won stage 5. He said he didn’t care about strategy and trusted his and his co-driver’s ability to continue the attack, opening up the track. But this time, sanity prevailed, at least for the moment.

Carlos Sainz continued to attack and did not relax his pulse one bit. With great perseverancethe man from Madrid went out for his victim without consideration or mercy. He started 11 minutes behind leader Al-Rajhi in the general classification and 2 and a half minutes behind Al-Attiyah.

The first coup of the theater was carried out by a local idol. Saudi Al-Rajhi, who also started at the front, had to retire after an accident at kilometer 99. And meanwhile, Carlos Sainz began to take time away from Al-Attiyah at breakneck speed. that there was nothing I could do to stop that bleeding.

Finally, Ekström, Al-Attiyah and Chicherit reached the 5th point out of 7 qualified as a camp (point E) and there they will sleep, receiving the basics: a tent, a sleeping bag and a military ration of food. In theory, without communication, without knowing the classifications. That’s for sure They will have no mechanical assistance for their equipment. The rest of the pilots will have the same rules as in the previous camp, the one at point D. There, Sainz and Cruz made a loop in their own plan: they decided to waste some time again by staying in 4th camp and not sharing the 5th with Al- Attiyah. So, Carlos will try to take advantage of a denser terrain to further cut Nasser this Friday.

In this context, with Sainz staying in the previous camp, time references should be taken to that point and not to the one where the Qatari finished, as Carlos has not yet passed there. In that D camp, Sainz is the virtual leader of the Dakar.

A good mattress that can rise

At that point of kilometer 458 of the total 570, with 150 to finish the stage, Carlos Sainz was the fastest, 4’31” ahead of Ekström, 5’19” of Loeb and 19’15” of Moraes. Meanwhile, Eryk Goczal and Catalan co-driver Oriol Mena made it to the Top-5 scratch with a T3 car. 6th at that point was Al-Attiyah, with a lot to lose, a total of 24’09” .

So, at that point D, With 150 kilometers left to finish the stage, Sainz leads the virtual general classification with 15’58” ahead of his teammate Ekström and 21’41” on Al-Attiyah. Nasser should finish stage 6 this Friday morning with 112 kilometers to go. While Carlos has to complete the last 150, where he can increase his advantage to give an important blow to his great rival.

The double world rally champion started 17th on the starting order and advanced the cars at great speed at the wheel of his Audi RS Q e-Tron. His speed was such that he was 4th in the line of cars in the desert, after Ekström, Chicheirt and Al-Attiyah, who advanced to the next camping point. Al-Attiyah should resume opening this Friday morning. The wind will blow away the tracks of those three cars from now until Carlos reaches point E, but the tracks of those three cars will be in front of him from there to the end of the stage to continue to increase his advantage and to thus he will gain a good cushion to defend in the second part of the rally.

Peterhansel problems

In addition, Stéphane Peterhansel said goodbye to his options when he had a problem with his Audi. The French surrendered more than an hour and 40 minutes, which will allow him to concentrate on acting as a squire for Carlos and Mattias to defend the double Audi in the general classification, something that if confirmed between of today and the end of the Dakar will be historic. Audi will bid farewell to the Dakar this year and wants to do so by being the first to win with an electric car. Sainz will achieve this. He had it in his hand. But it is not to be trusted. There are many more. This is the Dakar.