Dakar 2024, live | Follow Stage 7 of the rally with Carlos Sainz, live today

After the disqualification of Goczal and Mena, who led the Challenger overall with more than an hour advantage and with enormous authority, Cristina Gutiérrez is now second in the category, 24’26” behind the new leader, Mitchell Guthrie Cristina will make history fighting for the victory of the Dakar in the Challenger class. Jutta Kleinschmidt was the first woman and the only winner of the Dakar Rally (2001). He did it in the highest class of cars. This time, Cristina could be the second woman to win the Dakar, although in a lower category and not in the full category.

Undoubtedly, the most surprising news of the rest day in Dakar came at the last minute, the disqualification of the leaders of the Challenger T3 category, the very young Eryc Goczal and the Catalan co-pilot Oriol Mena. The reason? Because they used a carbon fiber clutch, something the FIA ​​doesn’t allow. However, there seem to be contradictions in the regulations. Co-driver Oriol Mena explained this yesterday on social networks, providing a screenshot of the sports regulations article where it says that the FIA ​​gives the competitors the freedom to choose the clutch they want.

“In the regulations there is a first article where the parts that can be used in carbon are mentioned and then there is another article dedicated exclusively to the clutch where it is clarified that it is free. The carbon clutch or the standard one does not affect the performance of the car, it is more reliable and that is why we installed it,” said Mena.

The amazing battle they are fighting Brabec and Cornel against Hero of Ross Branch Still fighting today. Van Beveren was already in that match at the end of the match. stage 6but his success in the marathon stage has opened the track for him today and he is paying for it: The Frenchman is 9 minutes behind the general classification before the start of this stage 7 of the Dakar 2024 on motorcycles and now, in km 173 of the special, he is giving way 7’45” compared to Cornejo, the best at this point.

Cornejo leads the special at km173 ahead of Kevin Benavides (2 seconds behind) and Ross Branch, 1’06”. In this way, Ross Branch became the virtual leader of the motorcycle general standings coming into the refueling point at that point with… attention!, just 8 seconds ahead of Brabec in the virtual general standings and there are already 12 minutes with respect to Cornejo and Van Beveren. Kevin Benavides is 26 minutes behind in the overall standings and Toby Price is 30 minutes behind.

This is the profile of stage 7 of Dakar 2024. We move away from the dunes of the Empty Quarter and return to a more varied route. There are 17% dunes, 61% dirt tracks and be careful, because the stones return with 4% of the total km of the special. Stones can be decisive again because of the holes they can cause in this second week. You can be the judges of this Dakar.

At the moment, the top cars of Loeb and Sainz are starting the seventh special of the Dakar 2024. Carlos Sainz starts today as the leader after his return to the Empty Quarter. He does so with a 20’21” advantage over his teammate Ekström and a 29-minute margin over Sébastien Loeb. Now the Frenchman has the difficult task of opening the track on a day where difficult navigation is expected, so Carlos’s advantage at the front of the general classification may be greater at the end of the day. We will see… because anything can happen in Dakar.

Welcome to the live stream of stage 7 of the Dakar 2024. Welcome to the start of the second week of the Dakar! There is a lot of uncertainty and emotion because of everything that is still at stake in the toughest race in the world in the 6 final stages, where many surprises and moments of pure spectacle are still expected in the beautiful landscapes of Saudi Arabia.