new stage, new strategy for Carlos Sainz. After the third day marked the future of the Dakar for the man from Madrid, now it’s time to go on the attack to try to recover the half-hour deficit with Al Attiyah. All stages will be key, The Audi driver has already started to push and although in the first loop of Ha’il he “would have liked to recover, we haven’t been able to recover much”. It was only 16 seconds that barely had an effect on the general classification, “a puncture made us lose time and then a small problem with the pressure of a wheel. It suddenly dropped and I don’t really know why”, explains Carlos, about some problems that they should at least avoid starting tomorrow.
The sandy areas are intensifying and that should reduce punctures, but also the risks that Carlos needs to catch the lead: “There are fewer days left and (to cut) They have to be stages like the second, which was crazy. Everyone had a puncture and now if we enter the sand, the puncture factor that this year is determining the start of the rally disappears”. There is uncertainty as to whether new risk areas will appear from now on in an unknown route. Waiting to find out what will happen, Sainz has written his letter to the Three Wise Men with a very clear request: “It is necessary that things happen and that nothing happens to me (laughs). That’s ideal.”
In addition to the natural difficulties of the route, navigation could also be decisive, but Sainz maintains the same argument as when he suffered with the roadbook: “It is much better than last year and here what it is about, is that the race is not decided because the ‘radbook’ is wrong. The race has to be decided because you go faster or navigate well, now I’m not going to ask for what I have criticized on other occasions”.
Precisely this year everything is in order with the road book, “Everything is well marked, the waypoints are as they should be and those in hiding have enlarged them on the radio”, comments the man from Madrid, who at least continues to enjoy himself and leaves images to remember, like the one today in some dunes that have resisted him: “We could not upload and I have retried, I had to turn and I’ve been dune surfing until I got up. There are very steep slopes and the truth is that this is typical within this area of Ha’il, there are many mountains to climb. There were many degrees of inclination ”, which they have saved to start their comeback.