Stage 11 Dakar Rally 2024, live: Carlos Sainz, live now | Saudi Arabia

Nacho Cornejo suffered a problem at the start with the fuel pump in the front tank of his Honda. When he ran out of gas in the rear tank, he had to remove the front tank to put gas in the rear and thus continue. And he has to keep doing it all over the stage… he misses the podium and can’t hide his sadness from Ross Branch, who comes to question him.

Laia Sanz has a very clear strategy for now. He wants the Top-15 overall. He is 16th after a great Dakar so far. There are two days left and the goal now must be to reach the end without mistakes in a very complicated stage: “Prepared for stage 11 of the Dakar. Lived a little. You don’t have to trust yourself. It’s a long stage, with a lot of rocks and we have to take care of the tires, because if you run out it will be a very serious problem because we have to wait for the truck and now there will be quite a mess in this matter. “We’ll be conservative, try to get to the end with enough tires and hope we have some luck as well.”

Ross Branch isn’t throwing in the towel. He faced stage 11 as his last chance to put pressure on leader Ricky Brabec, 10 minutes off the lead after being so close in recent days. Branch rides now and is the best in point 258, with a margin of 57 seconds on Van Beveren, who wants the Dakar podium, and with 2’32” on Luciano Benavides. But most importantly, Branch puts 4 ’17 ” to Ricky Brabec who risked yesterday by winning a stage to open the track today with a good margin in the general classification. If Branch can double his advantage, we may experience a Dakar finale similar to last year, with a final sprint stage between the two drivers… Branch’s challenge seems complicated but not impossible.

Going through the first checkpoint, kilometer 43 of stage 11, Carlos Sainz is the fastest so far with 1 minute and 3 seconds ahead of Sébastien Loeb. ‘El Matador’ starts in style on an important day, the main day for Carlos to make his fourth Dakar.

Both Carlos Sainz and Sébastien Loeb are on track to compete in this 11th stage of the Dakar 2024. Everything is at stake in a territory that could be a real final torture before tomorrow’s short stage… at stake, the title in a terrain full of rocks.

Carlos Sainz and Sébastien Loeb are playing the stone lottery. Carlos Sainz has a lead of 13’22” over the Frenchman in the general standings with this stage remaining and tomorrow’s short leg. Now almost the entire Dakar can be decided, and it is on a terrain full of rocks. In all the holes that had the same… it is clear that now they will also suffer. The difference is that Carlos has two colleagues who can help him by giving him his tires, although for this he also needs Ekström and Peterhansel who don’t puncture so much and reserve rubber, in addition to being able to keep up with you to avoid long waits in case you run out of spare tires.

For his part, Sébastien Loeb is almost alone. after Peterhansel’s abandonment. It is true that in Prodrive there is still a car like Cristian Baumgart’s X Rally, the best position, in the 8th starting position today, ahead of Loeb. The Chinese team can also help you YunXiang, also on the Prodrive structure, with its driver Zi Yungang, but his departure today is far from being placed 55th on yesterday’s stage… little help left for Sébastian in the fight.

Portuguese motorcycle racer Rui Gonçalves was forced to abandon the Dakar on stage 11 when he crashed at kilometer 12 of the penultimate special of the year. Rui Gonçalves is in 24th position overall. Unlucky for Sherco, who had already seen how Santolino had to retire for the first time in this Dakar due to a mechanical failure on his motorcycle. Sherco had pilot Harith Noah on the run, who had an amazing stage 10, as one of the motorcycle revelations of this Dakar.

Nacho Cornejo, fourth in the general classification and leaving today for stage 11 of the Dakar 2024 on motorcycles with a 13’48” disadvantage in the general classification with respect to his teammate Ricky Brabec, stopped in the kilometer 115. He managed to continue the march and Arriving at the refueling station he made sure of that The fuel pump in the front tank of his Honda was damaged. When he ran out of gas in the rear tank, he had to remove the front tank to put gas in the rear and thus continue.

Carlos Sainz had three punctures yesterday and Ekström had to give him two tires. And Loeb punctured twice. And that in stage 10 there are only 9% stones…. now the percentage of stones with respect to the total stage is 19%.

The place where stage 11 takes place today is well known… stage 2 of the last Dakar was held here, which was a real nightmare for everyone because, according to the pilots themselves, there were “rocks like balls”. Be careful because this is not a joke. Sainz said last year that it was “the hardest stage I’ve done in my Dakar career.” Well… here, you can win or lose a Dakar. It’s as if the Tour de France is competing in its final stage with the title at stake in a port full of nails on the asphalt…

This is the description that Dakar made on its official website about stage 11. Be careful because it promises intense emotions. Powerful: “This could change the order of the podium. The drivers can now prepare. We can predict that IN THIS SPECIAL THE HIGHEST NUMBER OF PITS WILL BE RECORDED”

Welcome to stage 11 of the Dakar 2024. Today a lot is at stake in a very, very difficult stage, the penultimate of the Dakar. Be careful because in stage 11 of Dakar 2024 there are many rocks and everything can change.