Sunday’s been a long day for Carlos Sainz. And it’s not done yet. Tonight, there’s no restaurant, no room service. He’s got a Raptor to fix, food to find and tent to put up. Before he’s back on the road first thing Monday morning.
The novelty of the 48-hour Chrono might well have worn off for the four-time Dakar winner.
Watching on from the relative comfort of the Bisha bivouac, M-Sport team principal Matthew Wilson is full of admiration for what he’s seen from all four Fords through the first half of the 600-mile two-day test.
“You have to give huge kudos to them all today,” he said. “To be in the car before seven in the morning, to drive for seven hours and then pitch the tent, eat some ration packs and then repair the car themselves – I think we’ve seen how tough this 48-hour stage is and what it’s proved.”
Talking about the mid-stage roll which cost Sainz an hour, Wilson added: “When the accident happened, Carlos was running first or second on the road, we’re not sure, so he was opening the route and obviously [came] across a very sharp dune which must have caught him out and it looks, from the footage we’ve seen, it looks like he’s basically gone end over end and landed on the roof.
“Mitch [Guthrie Jr] managed to pull him back onto his wheels and then he was stopped for a while to move some damaged parts and that type of thing.
“Hopefully from what we can see and what we’ve heard it’s more just cosmetic damage than anything structural and it looks like he’s been running at a pretty reasonable pace, nearing a full pace after that [crash].
“The main thing really is to get him back here tomorrow. It looks like he’s lost around an hour, which is a lot, but this is stage two of the Dakar – there’s a long way to go.”
Some saving grace for Sainz and navigator Lucas Cruz is that they managed to reach the same rest camp as the majority of the Ultimate field, after the 618km marker, which means they will have far less legwork for the second half of the two-day chrono when action recommences at 7am tomorrow.
For Wilson, the main thing is finishing the stage and reaching Bisha again before the real Dakar begins with stage three.
“Obviously they’re now going to pitch a tent eat some ration pack and then start again tomorrow morning, having to repair the car themselves as well,” continued Wilson.
“I think all of them have done an incredible job today and we’ve seen how tough this 48-hour stage is and what it’s proved. We’ve seen Loeb lose some time, we’ve seen Moraes stuck, we’ve seen a lot happen and it looks like the dunes were very, very tricky, obviously with what happened to Carlos.
“It’s very rare that you see T1+ cars stuck in dunes nowadays as well, especially since going to the bigger tyre and everything. They just look very, very tricky conditions in the dunes. So, it’s been an eventful day.”
While Sainz has slipped down the leaderboard, team-mate Mattias Ekström is running third, nine minutes off leader Yazeed Al Rajhi’s Toyota.
Wilson said: “Mattias has done an incredible job today; very, very good job, I have to say. It looks like he lost a little bit of time in one sector, [without] which [it] would have put him literally right up at the front, if not probably first overall or first in the stage. So, a really good stage from him, no issues and a very strong day.”
Nani Roma is running eighth, with Guthrie 15th and Sainz 25th ahead of Monday’s second part of the 48-hour Chrono.
