Dakar 2024, Stage 6A: Sainz retakes lead after Al-Rajhi’s retirement

Al-Rajhi dropped out of the fight for victory when he crashed into a dune at the start of the 48-hour chrono stage, suffering severe damage to his Toyota Hilux.

The Saudi’s troubles worked to treat for Sainz, who had already jumped Nasser Al-Attiyah in the early hours of the day, to reclaim the lead in the overall standings on an exceptionally strong day for Audi.

The 48-hour chrono stage that began on Thursday is a new innovation by Dakar organizer ASO in which drivers have to complete a distance of 549km (shortened from 579km) over two days without receiving any external assistance from their teams.

But instead of the schedule simply being divided into two days based on distance, drivers have to cover as much ground as they possibly can before 4pm, before stopping at the next available bivouac.

With seven biouvacs spread over hundreds of kilometers, and each driver setting off for the stage at a different time, that meant that not everyone ended up at the same stopping spot for the night.

Although Sainz only made it as far as Bivouac D, he was still the provisional stage and overall leader at the end of the day, having covered the first 398km with a time of 5h22m00s.

Sainz led from the very front in Empty Quarter, one of the world’s largest sand deserts, slowly but steadily extending his lead over the chasing pack led by team-mate Stephane Peterhansel and then Mattias Ekstrom.

At one point, Sainz’s advantage to Ekstrom stretched to over five minutes, but the Swede was able to cut the back in the final sections to end up 4m31s adrift at Bivouac D.

While Sainz and Ekstrom celebrated a 1-2 for Audi at the mid-point of Stage 6, it wasn’t all smooth sailing for the German manufacturer as Peterhansel was hit with a number of technical problems that sent him tumbling down the order. He had lost nearly two hours by the time he reached Bivouac B.

That meant that it was Prodrive’s Sebastien Loeb who ended the day third in the order, 5m19s down on Sainz, after a competitive showing in which he remained in the same ballpark as the leaders.

Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool

#206 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota GR DKR Hilux: Lucas Moraes, Armand Monleon

With Al-Rajhi out of the fight, the best Toyota runner on Stage 6 was factory driver Lucas Moraes in fourth, although he lost 19m15s to the front over the course of the day.

Eryk Goczal was a surprise fifth in his Taurax Max T3 class entry, the Polish driver even beating the Prodrive car of reigning champion Nasser Al-Attiyah.

The Qatari driver didn’t want to lead out front in the absence of a track left by bike riders, who followed a different route on Thursday, and dropped eight minutes in the first 49km. He wasn’t even inside the top 40 at this point of the stage.

Carefully navigating his way up the pack, Al-Attiyah was able to climb to sixth place by Bivouac D, before stopping at the next halting point later in the stage.

However, he lost 24 minutes to arch rival Sainz in the process, leaving him with a mountain to climb in the second part of the stage on Thursday.

Overdrive Toyota’s Guerlain Chicherit, who also made it to Bivouac E, was provisionally ranked seventh ahead of Senth Quintero in the Toyota Hilux factory.

In the virtual overall standings, Sainz now holds a healthy 15-minute lead over team-mate Ekstrom, although a comparison between the two isn’t fair as they stopped at different bivouacs for the night.

Al-Attiyah sits third overall, 21m41s, adrift of Sainz, while Prodrive stablemate Loeb is a further 15 minutes behind in fourth.

Moraes is now Toyota’s top representative in fifth, but well over one hour behind the Audi of Sainz.

Provisional classification after Stage 6A (Biouvac D):