Carlos Sainz, four-time winner of the Dakar and defending champion, retired Monday evening at the end of the 2nd stage of the rally raid organized in Saudi Arabia, a marathon stage spread over two days, announced the race management. “The end of the adventure for the four-time Dakar winner and defending champion, Carlos Sainz, and his co-driver Lucas Cruz. See you soon, King Carlos”tweeted the rally management.
Having rolled over on Sunday at km 327, during the first part of the stage, the Spaniard at the wheel of his badly damaged Ford Raptor managed to reach the finish line on Monday more than an hour and a half behind the winner. , the young Lithuanian Rokas Baciuska. “El Matador” and his co-pilot had spent a large part of the previous evening patching up their car, whose hood, windshield and roof were torn off in their rollover, leaving the passenger compartment and all the mechanics exposed. “It's not ideal. We rolled over on a dune. The car is a little damaged and so are we”he said on Sunday.
After the finish on Monday evening, a check by his M-Ford team and the FIA showed that the car was not fit to continue. “The deformation of his roll bar forced him to leave the Dakar”added the race organizers.
At 62, Carlos Sainz was one of the favorites for the race, which he won four times, each time for a different brand (Volkswagen in 2010, Peugeot in 2018, Mini in 2020 and Audi 2024). Double WRC world rally champion in 1990 and 1992, the Madrilenian was racing for Ford this year.
