Accompanied by his compatriot Lucas Cruz, the duo won with a time of 48 hours, 03 minutes and 33 seconds.
The Spanish Carlos Sainzof 61 yearswith Audi and accompanied by his compatriot Lucas Cruz as co-pilot, he won his fourth Dakar Rally in the category cars repeating the title achieved in 2010, 2018 and 2020.
The Madrid native Sainz, great strategist and best pilotendured this Dakar very tough and is proclaimed champion for the fourth time with the exception that on each occasion he did it with a different brand: Volkswagen 2010, Peugeot 2018, Mini 2020 and Audi 2024.
Carlos Sainz MINI JCW Buggy.jpg
BMW Press
Sainz-Cruz won with a time of 48 hours, 03 minutes and 33 seconds, followed by the Belgian Guillaume de Mevius and the Frenchman Xavier Panseri (Rebellion Toyota at 1h 20min and 54sec and the Frenchman Sebastian Loeb and the Belgian Fabian Lurquin (BRX Prodrive ) at 1h 36min and 92sec.
The Sainz-Cruz duo made history by being the first racers to turn a hybrid car into a Dakar champion. A hybrid is a car that emits around 80 percent less CO2 (carbon dioxide) than a traditional model, making it significantly less polluting; helping to reduce greenhouse gases.
Despite not winning any stage, Sainz and the Catalan Cruz were for much of the Dakar and, in the three most complicated stages, the main protagonists.
They came second in a first day full of stones and punctures, second in the sixth, a 48-hour time trial through the largest sand desert, and third in the penultimate day, another marathon of stones in which Sainz slowed down after seeing the breakdown of Loeb, aware that no one could come close to his time.
Sainz’s strategy was evident, to be very regular. That gave him the chance to open the track but without pushing as hard as possible to reduce time and positions in the general classification, as Loeb had to do until the last day.
Source: Ambito
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