He Dakar 2025 It didn’t start off in the best way Carlos Sainz. This is only the preliminary stage and in the case of cars, it does not count for the general classification, so the importance of this first 29-kilometer qualifying session is only to be in the top 10 to choose the starting order for stage 1 and thus start drawing a good strategy to defend the corona. However, the Madrid driver did not start with the best, losing by 1’17” compared to the winner of the prologue stage, Henk Lategan.
The Spanish stayed less than 1 minute from another of the great favorites, Al-Attiyah, who started in third place behind one of Carlos’s Ford team-mates, Mattias Ekström, was 2nd, just one second behind the winner. Great distance for the ‘Matador’ and a day with a very short route that seemed to surprise everyone due to the initial difficulty of navigation, between the trees in a sandy and very fast section where his other companion, Nani Roma, started 7th at 35” seconds, in the Top-10 to select a starting point.
Nani is only behind other favorites like Sebastien Loeb (Dacia, 5º to 33″) and Lucas Moraes and Catalan co-driver Armand Monelón (Toyota, 6th to 35”).
The fourth position of debutant in the queen class, Rokas Baciuska, Catalan co-pilot, was surprising. Oriol Mena, with a time that left him 21 seconds behind the winner.
Sainz warned MD before the start that “the tactics in this Dakar may be more important than ever.” Maybe he started more calmly in search of a better strategy. Or maybe it’s just a bad day. The fact is that he has to start further than expected, behind all the favorites, and it remains to be seen if that can harm or benefit him in front of stage 1 where the strategy will be important to open the track or not in stage 2, the 48-hour time trial of more than 1,000 kilometers, where the co-pilots will not have the tracks of the motorcycles and the opening of the track by car will be very complicated.
“We have been careful”
Upon reaching the finish line, Carlos Sainz He didn’t show his displeasure with what happened and said he wanted to be “careful”, although he was very brief in his explanations, a clear sign that it didn’t start out the way he wanted.
“The prologue, good, no problem. It was not easy to see where the path was and we were careful. the car? This is what we expected, no surprises, nothing new compared to what we saw in the tests and in the shakedown, everything is fine. Win the Dakar? We’ll see where we are,” said the Spaniard, who when asked about his plan and strategy for stage 1, again answered very briefly: “We’ll try to have a good stage.”
Al-Attiyah (Dacia), who started third, was happy with his time. “It was a fast, tough prologue stage, with a lot of navigation and it wasn’t easy for the first car. But I drove well and we sailed well. Except for one area with a lot of trees where we lost something in a tree, but that is the Dakar. The car is incredible, I am very happy to drive Dacia Sandriders.
“Strategy? I don’t know, let’s see what we can do. Secrets? There are no secrets. We will see,” added the Qatari, who will start playing his cards from stage 1.
For her part, Cristina Gutiérrez, who debuted in the top category with Dacia as the second woman in history to become an official driver in the premier car class, started outside the Top-10, 52” behind the best , with better timing. than Sainz.
Source: La Verdad
I’m Rose Herman and I work as an author for Today Times Live. My expertise lies in writing about sports, a passion of mine that has been with me since childhood. As part of my job, I provide comprehensive coverage on everything from football to tennis to golf.
