Brutal end: Sainz must abandon Dakar

Dakar is epic and painful. He feeds the legend on the basis of his feats remembered through time. There are always memorable stories and one of them was the one starring Carlos Sainz on Stage 9 yesterday. But he fought until his last second and showed the pride of the greatest athlete of all time.

His Dakar will not be remembered for the accident he suffered in Stage 6. After crashing in the cut dunes on Stage 6, he wanted to continue first and foremost. He stopped to help Ekstrom break down parts of his car on Stage 7 and become stranded in the desert so that his Audi teammates would not waste time. And yesterday the game passed. I didn’t have another chance to win the Dakar this year, but I wanted to overcome all the obstacles and win against the toughest race in the world. he tried everything. What happened yesterday was a prime example of the type of 60-year-old champion who never gives up.

Carlos Sainz set himself the goal of winning “as many stages as possible” and, as he told MD, took advantage of these days when nothing was in danger, saying, “I wouldn’t try if I was fighting.” Please try it,” he said. for victory ”. He went to it from the beginning of the day. However, on the first change he flipped his Audi over in his 6km and apparently was forced to abandon it. Minutes later, he was flown by helicopter to hospital for “severe chest pain on the right side,” according to Harad’s organization. However, he never reached Riyadh. The “Matador” turned to the helicopter and asked him to put him back in the car to continue the race!

video

4 hours wait

The Spaniard jumped over the dunes and fell face down on the sand. He flipped over and put his face up. Sainz was in pain, but Lucas was unharmed. The Spanish crew turned the car around with the help of three spectators. The vehicle was so impressed that Sainz seemed to have chosen to give up, but already with the helicopter he changed his mind. According to the organization, when the MD consulted, “there is nothing written in the regulations that prevents him from re-entering the race if he is on a helicopter.” The car was still there and he took advantage of it and returned. He was going to get over the pain.

After 4 hours and 5 minutes Carlos resumed the march, leaving the special for the bivouac by road. It seems that the most difficult thing has been done. Audi had to analyze the condition of the car to see if it could be repaired so that Carlos could use his last wild card to return to racing on stage 10 today. Nor did the doctor give the man from Madrid “OK”.

The car suffered irreparable damage.

Sainz and Lucas were fine. they could continue. Cars are not. In the video, the accident caused structural damage to Audi’s carbon fiber monocoque chassis, which did not justify the large frontal impact forces (27G) the vehicle was subjected to. they had to leave.

All this is the result of a lot of hard work by Carlos and Lucas. In order to get out of the overturned car, Cruz had to kick the door down and go to the bivouac. It didn’t help the continuation, but it did help show the Dakar spirit on both sides. “Matador” is unique. World Sports Heritage.