Carlos Sainz grabbed a record-equaling 23rd stage win at the Dakar Rally on Friday, but Volkswagen teammate Nasser al-Attiyah was poised to comfortably inherit the Spaniard’s championship crown.
Sainz, who started the 12th and penultimate stage in third place after a disastrous Thursday when he had lost an hour — and his title — with a broken suspension, came home 2 minutes, 43 seconds in front of South African teammate Giniel de Villiers.
Qatari driver al-Attiyah finished the 555km special from San Juan to Cordoba, which was largely a quagmire following violent overnight storms, 6 minutes, 11 seconds behind Sainz, but he has a 48 minute, 21 second overall lead on de Villiers and a 1 hour, 21 minute, 16 second advantage over the Spaniard.
For Sainz it was a sixth stage win this year and the 23rd in all, but, barring a major mishap, it will not prevent his Qatari rival, last year’s runner-up, from taking the title on the gentle 181km finale into Buenos Aires.
“It’s a very difficult feeling, you know, because you need a lot of concentration from the start until the finish,” al-Attiyah said. “You don’t want to make any mistakes. It really was the hardest stage of my life, because I had to keep concentrated and not make any mistakes. Sometimes I was going fast, sometimes slow because I needed to keep my concentration and keep the same pace, but it was OK. We finished the stage without any problems and I’m really quite happy.”
Sainz said his 23rd career stage win, which equaled the mark of French driver Stephane Peterhansel, was little consolation for seeing his title slip away.
“We drove well. We had to overtake a lot of competitors. There was a lot of dust and we had a puncture,” the former double world rally champion said. “This 23rd stage victory is a good thing, but it wasn’t our goal. Peterhansel has 23 as well, so we’ll have to see who can get the record tomorrow.”
In the motorcycle section, Spanish rider Marc Coma rode his KTM to victory to virtually wrap up the title.
Coma finished 37 seconds ahead of closest rival and defending champion Cyril Despres of France on another KTM to boost his overall lead to 16 minutes, 36 seconds ahead of the concluding stage.
“Today was complicated due to all the rain that fell last night. As a result, it was a very technical stage, like in endurance racing, but it went fine,” said Coma, after securing his fifth stage win of this year’s event. “There is still a 190km stage left to race on Saturday. Normally, there shouldn’t be any complications, but we still need to race them, it’s there to be done.”
Despres said the heavy overnight rain had made the running difficult.
“I had to go on the attack, it’s second nature for me anyway, so I’ve been going for it since the first kilometer, even if I slowed a bit at the end,” the Frenchman said. “It must have rained a lot last night because the tracks were churned up with lots of mud. It was hellish.”
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