Laia Sanz, after leaving the Dakar by 2 millimeters: “It was a difficult night”

Laia Sanz He lived through one of the most difficult days of his sports career. In the first stage of Dakar 2025the Catalan, after a magnificent prologue, suffered when he ran out of third gear and, later, when he seemed to have saved the day, rolled in a cloud of dust raised by D.and Villiersby only 10 centimeters, touched a rock and overturned.

is 5 hours in the deserttrying to fix the car until it can resume driving. An adventure against the clock begins. I have limited time to enter a ‘closed gate’ and to enter the bivouac arrival time limit. With the tablet not working, with a difficult navigation point several kilometers ahead, with the car broken down and no third gear, Laia achieved the seemingly impossible, reaching the camp with only 2 minutes to spare.

Therefore, that FIA forcing him to abandon due to the removal of a bar of his safety arch, which was only 2 millimeters, hurt him even more. The night was complicated. One of your sponsors, Joseph Maria Lloredaof KH7went to his caravan to comfort him and make it clear that he should be calm, that his support was unconditional and there was nothing wrong with the return any sponsor needed. And that, at one point difficult, is comforting.

The next morning, I accepted it, although I was still upset. Especially to see his comrades in battle coming out of the track while he stayed there, in the bivouac.

“I didn’t sleep much. It was a difficult night. But this morning I’m quite happy even though it’s hard to see… I have never experienced this, this is the first year, and more than the first day, andTo see everyone leave for a 48-hour period is very painful, but you have to take it philosophically and work for the next one, there is no other option.”Laia told MD when she spoke to the Spanish press present at the bivouac.

when Laia He managed to reach the bivouac, the hardest part seemed to have passed. Time to check that there is no damage to the vehicle. But Laia He feared the worst when he realized that one of the bars on the upper edge of his car’s safety arch was slightly displaced. The commissioners of FIA who later came to check the car to validate that it could go to stage 2, they found it. They talked for a few minutes. They left, came back, and finally announced that they would reconsider their decision. And finally, the FIA ​​took no chances. As expected.

There is no possibility of interpretation. It is black or white. The bar was moved and could not come out because it lost its structural resistance. In the safety cage, everything is calculated based on its initial state, and if a bar is removed or damaged, the calculation of that force changes completely. Safety can no longer be guaranteed in the event of a new rollover. And Laia understood this.

“The team engineers said that nothing will happen, but it is also understood that the FIA ​​people do not want to accept this responsibility and if something happens later, it will be a brown mark. It’s understandable but it hurts and I wish they would have let us out. Although we can no longer fight for a result, we can fight in stages and we can add kilometers, which in the end we have no choice in the year.. The FIA ​​is very demanding and this is normal, for safety reasons. This is what is needed. It also happened to my teammate last year and we have to accept it. But it’s a bitch.”

What happened was especially painful because Laia came to Dakar 2025 want to defend themselves. He needs a good result to finally find the chance he deserves, that of an official brand betting on him with the top car category (T1+), better than what he has this year, a two-wheel drive he wants to fight. to win that category 4×2.

Laia struggled in 2024 due to a lack of budget and found she could not aspire to T1+ despite all his achievements and his quality behind the wheel. As if he showed nothing in Dakar that counts for his future. That’s why I especially want to hit the weights. But in stage 1, that desire failed and he found himself back at the starting box, having to face again the ‘other Dakar’ which is very complicated, finding a good project and a good car, and also having the opportunity to have . filming throughout the year. Laia come to Dakar 2025 without test driving your car since then Dakar past and measured against drivers with more money and mileage on their cars. He wants 2026 to be different.

“I HAVE MORE TO SAY, EVERYTHING HAPPENS FOR SOMETHING”

“It came at least at the right time, certainly, but in races these things happen. YesThis is definitely the year that something unexpected happens, but in the end, we have to accept it and I always try to be positive. I’m sure he’s had a good time and it’s time to keep rowing, working. I haven’t said everything here and I really want things to go well,” he commented.

“I’m more excited than ever. It’s been a very complicated year, but we have to take the positive side of everything. It’s hard to see now, but I’m sure there’s a reason for it. I’ve always believed that bad things happen for a reason and I’m sure that’s where good things come from. At least, we learned something. We worked hard. I feel bad because this year I worked really well physically, I started to feel really good after the whole Lyme issue (which I suffered a few years ago), I know the car and it’s a good year to try to win in the 4×2 category and he has a very good rhythm, so I will stand by that.”

“The other Dakar is starting with Dakar 2026, which is more difficult. Now it’s time to disconnect a little, rest and work to get here next year with a good project and see if we can do the kilometers throughout the year , which I think is what it takes to get here well prepared.”added Laia.

“It is a disappointment. It costs a lot to get here. I think this is a year to do very well, both in my category (two-wheel drive) and in general. In fact, I was surprised the prologue was so far from the 4x4s out there without having driven or tested the car before. And no, they are things that happen. It is also playing. In 15 Dakars, which is far from one, I think is also something unique. What happened was a year where I wanted to do good and defend myself, and it hurt more.”

YOUR ACCIDENT

“The day didn’t start well. We had too much of a starting position that we couldn’t take full advantage of. We ran out of third gear at kilometer 20, and as a technical stage, which was more difficult than they said, we had to go from second to fourth and from fourth to second, which was very careful. We thought we wouldn’t make it to the end because of the gear change and in fact we were slow, and yet, after looking at the times and the classification, we were saving the day. And then our tablets stopped working and we still took it easier. De Villiers overtook us, and in his dust, we caught a rock. We were 10 centimeters out of a rut and I couldn’t even see the rock. A rock raised our car and we almost saved it, but we tipped over. Then I had to go see what happened, because when you go through the dust cloud you can’t see what’s there. And it makes it even more angry because we don’t insist, it’s not like that. It’s a bit of a survival phase.”

HE DIDN’T LEAVE ANY OF HIS 14 EX-DAKARES

“What I’ve done so far is very animal and you start to think about it and I appreciate it. And statistically, it’s probably time to go home. But on the first day and in this way, it hurts. Moreover, with so much suffering it was done we fix the car, come, in just two minutes, and you come here and within two millimeters of the bars, you’re left and it hurts. It’s understandable but it hurts.”

NAVIGATION MESS FOUND

“Our tablets stopped working and Gerini did an incredible job because we didn’t get lost, and where we were standing, apart from three or four other cars that ate our stone, ahead there was a complex point and we were almost right the time to get to the closed door and we almost didn’t get there because we got lost, there were people everywhere and at night it was very difficult, and we found the way point luckily- palm and we got it. there. But yeah, quite a lot of chaos.”