Carlos Sainz flies at new Audi premiere, Loeb suffers ahead of W2RC

last year, Carlos Sainz Accepting one of the most ambitious challenges of his sports career. “It’s one of the most difficult,” he told MD, who had to lead the development of his Audi RS Q e-Tron, pioneering for its technology and electrification. In Dakar, the Spaniard and his teammate showed a lot of quickness by winning stages, but arriving without being able to test the car in the previous race caused a setback in Dakar, setting He exceeded the stated minimum by 200 km. By regulation. This year, the second generation of the car, his RS Q e-Tron E2, was born 80kg lighter and gave him the chance to prove himself in the rally race in Morocco.world Carlos set the best time on the first stage of the Moroccan event.

It’s true that the comparison with the Dakar’s direct rivals is not accurate. Audi is competing outside the list of entries to participate in rally wins and FIA World Rally Raids., three times for each of his drivers after nine days of previous testing in Morocco, with the sole purpose of performing a real test of his car. But it’s surprising that the Spaniard was the fastest on a problem-free day in the first staging of 2023.

“Good stages. No problems, no punctures. First position. Good debut for the Audi RS Q e-Tron E2. Let’s keep going!”, Carlos Sainz said after the first day of racing:

Carlos had a very good stage and he was over 10 minutes ahead of his teammate. Ekström finished in 10:22 and Peterhansel in 11:37.

Al-Attiyah Goes Full for W2RC Title

Nasser Al-Attiyah arrives at Morocco Rally 1 point below the new leader FIA World Rally Raid (W2RC), Sebastian Loeband after winning the prologue stage in his Toyota Hilux, he showed great speed, but two punctures in the final part kept him from winning the final, leaving Toyota’s alrajwho brought him out Al Atiyah 3’13” to the reigning Dakar champion. Al Raj leads the race and starts the track with a 3’05” advantage overall.

Worst of all was Sebastien Loeb (BRX), who broke his car’s suspension at the start of the special and lost 20 minutes at the first checkpoint. At the end he showed good pace as he reached the finish line just 19 minutes behind his best.

The positives for the BRX thinking about the Dakar are the good pace Loeb showed and rookie Guerlain who finished fourth, one minute behind the best and 10 minutes behind Al Raj until the final two checkpoints. It’s a good pace that Cichelli also showed. In third place he was Przygonski (X-Raid Mini JCW), who trailed him by 7’29” from the winner.

When Isidor Esteve debuted in the Hilux T1+, the Catalan finished this first stage in 11th place, 29’14” behind his best.

The branch wins on two wheels

by motorcycle, Ross branch Won with an advantage of 1’09 against (Hero) Luciano Benavidez (Husqvarna) Thanks to the good starting position. Toby Price (KTM) finished third with a 2’31” Howes (Husqvarna) 4th with 3’20”. Sunderlandleader of FIM World Rally Raid He finished fifth in 4’33”. Tosha Shalaina Finished 11th in 13 minutes 44 seconds. Lorenzo Santorino Finished 12th in a dusty day.

Lawrencehe fell victim after making a mistake at the prologue crossing on Saturday penalty he had to start from bottom, survived the dust and made over 20 passes. With him up to 43 riders, the Salamanca man saved a difficult vote to score a very good 12th place.