This headline may remind you a lot of a movie, but nevertheless, it can serve as a summary of what has been the second stage of this Dakar. They promised the most demanding edition of recent times and for now, the specials are fulfilling that quality. It is only the second day of the race, but it can already be said that the fight for the Touareg has broken in a route full of stones where intelligence prevailed over speed. That turned the 430 kilometers of travel into something “endless” as Sainz described the day when he reached the finish line, but at least the man from Madrid was one of the few who can boast of having emerged almost intact from an endless odyssey. And that he was in charge of opening the track.
The Audi driver defended the most complex position on the least opportune day. At the beginning he found himself again with a puncture that he had already experienced the previous day and although this time he did not end with a comeback, he did do so with a third position that keeps Carlos in front of the general classification with a 2:12 advantage over Al Attiyah, the winner of the stage after stealing the victory over the finish line from Van Loon’s Toyota. Nasser reappeared strengthened by a favorable seventh position from the start next to which the Qatari sought to attack. But he also pricked and understood that precisely today, it was not the day to be fooling around after the problems he suffered the day before.
The new strategy helped Al Attiyah to cut 5:05 seconds with a Carlos who already warned after achieving his victory, that the advantage with the Toyota (it was just over seven minutes) could be in two punctures or a small loss. She finally she was conditioned by the caution that kept opening track so as not to be left in diapers with a second puncture, which in the case of Loeb, went until the third. And that means that except for surprise, the Frenchman is living a too premature farewell to the rally.
The BRX rider will give up more than an hour with his rivals (he has not yet crossed the finish line), since the third puncture came without spare tires forcing him to Slow down your pace to max your pace. Although it was not the only car that suffered from Overdrive. All the Hunters suffered on the stony terrain of a special that practically leaves two old and great rivals alone. Because except Sainzthe rest of Audi also experienced first-hand the harshness of a desert that made the journey impossible for many, including half of the favorites or a Laia Sanz who marching 12th, he said goodbye to continue progressing in a stage where basically, it was time to know how to suffer.