#Stroke #luck #Carlos #Sainz #Loebs #mistake
Neither several punctures, nor the complex navigation, nor the stones on the road, nor having a rally giant like Sebastien Loeb behind can, for the moment, with Carlos Sainz who is one day closer to conquering his fourth (and last?) Touareg trophy. The man from Madrid left the eighth stage of the toughest raid in the world with more of an advantage than when he started it, despite the fact that Loeb, with the Prodrive Hunter, seemed like he was going to have a certain superiority on paper in the 458 kilometers of special stage. this Monday.
Carlos Sainz entered third at the finish line of the stage between Al Duwadimi and Ha’il, which was taken by his teammate Matthias Ekstrom ahead of the Frenchman Guerlain Chicherit driving the Hilux of the Overdrive team, after a day in which he was stopped for several minutes due to a puncture in the first third of the day. The difficult track on which the members of the Dakar caravan walked at the beginning and end of the stage, and the fast asphalt area in the middle zone forced them to take two parallel strategies in just a few kilometers, in which Sainz and Cruz took the maximum possible return.
And we must highlight the work of the Matador’s co-pilot on this day, given what happened to Loeb. The nine-time world rally champion lost his way and, with it, the income he could have obtained at the beginning of the day when Sainz had to stop to repair a wheel. The Frenchman and his co-pilot Fabian Lurquin were circling around kilometer 390 when they failed to cross a checkpoint. Loeb’s total loss of time was 5:47, which works in favor of Sainz, who thus obtains a good amount of extra oxygen for the remainder of the week.
The legendary Spanish rider will reach the ninth stage of the raid with a 24:47 advantage over Loeb, which is by no means a decisive advantage, but it is an important cushion that allows him to temporize and think, to a certain extent, about conserving. here on Friday.
Argentine motorcycle party
Kevin Benavides and his brother Luciano won the stage on motorcycles, on a day in which they shook off the disappointment of the previous day, when Nacho Cornejo prevented the great party for the Argentine fans. The eldest of the Rosario brothers won a difficult and very fast day, as shown by the fact that the first ten reached the finish line with less than five and a half minutes difference.
The victory of the Honda driver is part of the intense fight for the lead. And Ricky Brabec opened the gap with a Ross Branch with whom he was only one second apart at the beginning of the day. Now there are 42. The extreme equality in the two-wheeled category, something quite common on the other hand, was taken to its most exaggerated point in this 2024 edition, in which the strategies will begin to gain an extra point of importance for the four remaining days.
Brabec himself pointed this out upon arrival at the Ha’il bivouac, from where the ninth stage of the raid will depart this Tuesday. «The day has been difficult, because there have been little games. We’ll see what happens. We knew it was going to be complicated, so some have preferred to slow down. There are still four days left and let’s hope everything goes well. We’ll go out and have a good time and stay focused. With the new Dakar, the last day is going to be crucial,” warned the American.
