Laia Sanz, the indestructible: “That’s when we panicked”

Pleasure and pride are the words that best describe how you feel. Laia Sanz (December 11, 1985, Corbera de Llobregat) finishing his third Dakar with a car inside the top 15 overall, his best position on four wheels, and finishing in third position in his 4×2 traction category. His 14th Dakar out of 14 possible after the 11 he previously completed on a motorcycle. Indestructible. “Here in Spain, this is something no one has done”stood out yesterday during his visit to the editorial office of Mundo Deportivo, proud of the work done during this period Dakar. It competed with 45 T1+ cars, top-class 4x4s with better performance than its two-wheel drive, especially on the dunes. And if this Dakar has anything, it is precisely that substance.

He made the Top-15 showing speed and a lot of head. For example, in a 48-hour period, of 600 kilometers on the dunes, with his co-pilot Maurizio Gerini, highlighting its efficient fuel management. And in addition, he had to do more management of the mechanics. He can’t push like the others because he can’t afford to change half a car every day and because of that he wastes time in a calculated way to achieve a goal that in both cases is very complicated for him. There, he relied on faith.

“We said, ‘Let’s try until the car stops.'”

On the second day of the 48 hour period he thought he would not finish the Dakar. “We had a moment of panic, it’s true that we defended ourselves on the first day and we had to slow down because of the consumption issue, because we couldn’t cover 400 km and we saw that the consumption was very high and we slowed down . But even so, the pace was not bad and there were parts of the stage that we rode with four-by-fours and they didn’t go very well. But in the second part of this 48-hour stage, it was only a few moments. the start of the clutch started slipped and in fact we stopped and thought we were out of Dakar. And we said: ‘What are we doing in the middle of the Empty Quarter? (the largest sand desert in the world). Well, let’s try until the car dies.’

“We left there knowing that we might take 10 or 20 kilometers and that we would stay stopped. There was 100 km left in all the dunes and what we did was not start the car because when you went up from half throttle the clutch started to slip. really hard. So we were in second, third and in the sand you looked for the easiest step, giving very little gas, letting the car run so the clutch didn’t go completely off. We were very careful. It was a very stressful stage and we thought we wouldn’t make it. No. “It’s a breakdown like any other where you know you’re going to lose an hour or an hour and a half but you’ll get there. The clutch. .. stay there until someone comes and it will be a disaster. We would have been left out of Dakar.” But they did it.

To the finish line…on three wheels!

And in penultimate stage, 10 kilometers from the end he was left on three wheels.

“We are very slow, because we are on three wheels. We also have previous experience from last year. The Coronel brothers also arrived on three wheels and Gerri, who is a very positive person, told me: ‘If they come on three wheels, so can we. 10 kilometers to go’. The only thing is that we prayed that there were no difficult steps of stone or sand. We were lucky it was pretty flat and we got there”commented on the matter

“But obviously you don’t have much direction, the car did what it wanted and it was very stressful. We also lost time. We were playing for second position in the 4×2 category and some position in the general classification. In fact Lavielle Si (Christian) was 12th at the end of the Dakar and I was 15th at the end, when at that moment of going to three wheels we were fighting with him for position. You feel helpless, but at the same time you is to say: ‘Wow! If we had come, we would have saved Dakar well.’ We would have been abandoned if it had happened to us earlier. Serradori had the same problem with 60 km to go and had to pull over.

And they came. Laia has won the Dakar 14 times and in 2024, with a top-15 showing speed and future. The message has been sent for those who want to listen to it. You need an official project. Keep insisting that one day that opportunity will come your way.