Sainz motivated like never before

After failing in his attempt to win the Dakar in 2009, Carlos Sainz returns to the South American event with new intentions. In 2009, he was leading when he finished his race in a dry river, jeopardizing his chances of becoming the first Spaniard to win the car event.

With an additional year of experience, the Spaniard hopes this time that his strategy will be the right one. “ Experience showed me that my tactics were the right one. I will compete in this Dakar like the first, with the idea of ​​racing to win it. I will accelerate when I feel that I can do it in order to obtain the largest possible gap as I did last year, which allowed me to have a half-hour head start before the start. accident “, he declared on As.

Within the Volkswagen armada which includes, among others, Giniel de Villiers, Mark Miller and Nasser Al-Attiyah, Carlos Sainz has all the cards in hand to finally achieve victory. With the withdrawal of the official Mitsubishi team, competition will no less be fierce. “ It is true that I have several important rivals within my own team. And I will also have to pay attention to the BMW team. They were already in the lead during the previous edition with Al Attiyah and this year, two new extraordinary drivers joined them with [Stephane] Peterhansel and Nani [Roma]. It will be complicated to fight against them. »

The competitors will set off on January 1st from Buenos Aires for a 9000 kilometer loop through Argentina and Chile. The arrival will be in the Argentine capital on January 17, 2010.

To find out everything about the Dakar, find the detailed guide to the 2010 edition in AUTOhebdo number 1731 available on newsstands.