Dakar 2024 – Carlos Sainz: “I was going slowly and we still had three punctures”

Already in normal times, the space allocated to Audi on the bivouac of Dakar Rally did not exude the joy of living with staff dressed all in black and facilities all in gray! The 10th stage of the Dakar 2024, this Wednesday around Al-Ula (Saudi Arabia), reinforced the freshness reigning in the German clan.

During this special, Carlos Sainz and Lucas Cruz had to stop three times to replace a flat tire each time. In these adventures, the Spaniards lost about a quarter of an hour. However, their lead over Sébastien Loeb and Fabian Lurquin (Bahrain Raid Xtreme) being only 24 minutes before the start of the stage, the leaders of the general classification felt the breath of the Alsatian at their backs!

🚗 @CSainz_oficial and @lucascruz74 have been stopped at km 248 for about 10 minutes.

🛠 @mattiasekstroem and @s_peterhansel stopped to assist them and the Spanish duo are back on track. # Dakar2024 pic.twitter.com/wCx95JuCV5

- DAKAR RALLY (@dakar) January 17, 2024

ALSO READ > Dakar 2024 – Loeb: “A very bad day for big bullshit”

“Well, it was a very rocky stage, a lot more than we expected, the 61-year-old veteran told Spanish media upon his arrival at the bivouac. NOTWe saw that we had passed Loeb (prone to two punctures. Editor’s note) and I was going slowly, without taking any risks, and we still had three punctures. »

Fortunately for “El Matador”, his teammate Mattias Ekström was dedicated to giving him two spare wheels (1 to replace a flat tire and the other as a spare). “We had to wait for Mattias to give us the tires on the last one… You don’t know what else to do. You're going slow and you get a puncture; you're going fast and you get a flat tire and you don't know what to do. »

Carlos Sainz then shifted gears at the end of the special, to reduce his deficit on his French opponent. “Yes, I expected to lose more time because at one point we lost about 16 minutes. Then, Loeb also had a puncture. And then at the end of the stage, we attacked well, even if there was a lot of dust. »

It is also because of this dust screen that Carlos Sainz attacked Romain Dumas (Toyota) once the finish line is crossed. The Spaniard suspects the Frenchman of not having shifted early enough when he had activated the Sentinel alarm to announce his recovery, but refused to make the slightest comment on this.

Before the final two stages of this Dakar 2024, Carlos Sainz has a 13’22” margin over Sébastien Loeb. Above all, he will be able to start further on Thursday in the peloton, which the Madrilenian concedes is " an advantage ".