Carlos Sainz (Audi) holds the pulse of Sébastien Loeb (Prodrive). Although the French rider has won the ninth stage of the Dakar 2024, he has only shaved a little more than four minutes on the Madrid rider, who remains the overall leader with 20 minutes and 33 seconds on the Frenchman.
More cautious in his driving, Sainz placed second in the stage (417 timed kilometers between Ha’il and Al Ula). In this way, he continues to lead the overall standings for one more day after a day that the Frenchman dominated from start to finish, who tried to correct the navigation error that cost him about ten minutes this past Monday and is aware that he only has three stages left, after this Tuesday, to place first.
The man from Madrid had the support of his teammates, the Swede Mattias Ekström (Audi) and the Frenchman Stéphane Peterhansel (Audi), so that they could help him in case there was a mechanical failure. Despite both starting ahead, the two drivers waited for the man from Madrid to pass by to ‘escort’ him so that he would not have any problems.
Loeb could not do the same, who lost the help of Qatari Nasser Al-Attiyah (Prodrive) in the first kilometer of the special stage, after the five-time Dakar winner had mechanical problems again and retired from the race for a second. consecutive day.
In motorcycles, the Frenchman Adrien van Beveren (Honda) took his second victory of the Dakar 2024 with a new victory. The American Ricky Brabec (Honda), who finished second, took a leap to the general classification and was 7 minutes and 9 seconds ahead of the Botswana Ross Branch (Hero).
Brabec finished the stage with six minutes and 27 seconds over Branch, for whom things did not go well during the day, because, although he finished sixth, he lost too much time over the American, who braked in the last section to avoid having to start first this Wednesday and waste time opening the track.
For his part, the French driver, with a time of 4 hours, 36 minutes and 36 seconds, ends the day third overall thanks to his victory, with which he gained more than ten minutes over the Chilean Nacho Cornejo (Honda), until this Tuesday third, and stretched the advantage over the Argentine Kevin Benavides (KTM) in the fight for the podium.
Thus, the South Americans begin to say goodbye to their chances of taking the Touareg home, while it is also difficult for them to get on the podium, after the emergence of Van Beveren at the top of the classification.
However, it was not a bad stage for all Latin Americans, since the Chilean Pablo Quintanilla (Honda), who did not have his Dakar due to mechanical problems, finished the stage third, 4 minutes and 29 seconds behind the Frenchman, but he is still very far away. of the ‘top ten’ of the table for chaining several consecutive days with breakdowns and even running out of gasoline in the middle of the desert.
The one who did not run out of gas despite stopping giving gas in the last section was the American Ricky Brabec, who is beginning to appear as the clear favorite to achieve the overall victory of the Dakar.
