Sainz and Al Attiyah: the sprint is on

514 km long, this special stage promised to be formidable: indeed, quite a few events happened there! Carlos Sainz leaves with the knife between his teeth, takes almost six minutes at Al Attiyah then punctures and loses his way a little. At the finish, the Madrilenian only had a three-minute lead: not enough to take the lead in the race, but enough to put a smile back on his face. However, tomorrow, it is the Qatari who will have the advantage, because Sainz will start in the lead, a certain disadvantage in the announced dunes.

The two other VW drivers, Mark Miller and Giniel de Villiers, are now too far behind in the general standings to hope to win the event on a regular basis. As for fifth place overall, it seems very cursed: the German Matthias Kahle, who had regained this position after Lavieille's problems, rolled over at the 17th km of the event, and turned around. Another very unlucky driver, Errandonea, was reported stopped in the special with a broken driveshaft on his SMG buggy.

By setting the fifth time with his Nissan Pickup, Christian Lavieille rewards the Dessoude team mechanics for their sleepless night spent changing the gearbox. But leaving “weighted down” with a suitcase of penalties, Lavieille can no longer hope for a good place overall.

Tomorrow, the seventh stage will take the competitors from Turkmenbashi to Balkanabad, with a 345 km special in the Karakum desert. THE rally is now installed, until arrival, in Turkmenistan, a country in full economic expansion?