Face to face
bike
In with the new guard?
NUMBER 2: KTM – Repsol RedBull
Marc Coma (ESP)
Marc Coma numbers among the group of promising drivers who, if fate smiles upon them, could well add their name to the Dakar Rally winners’ list. For since he started out in raid rally driving, the 29-year-old Spaniard has followed a trajectory that offers considerable cause for optimism.
His debut, in the 2002 Arras-Madrid-Dakar riding a dual-cylinder Suzuki 900, was most notable for a 7th place obtained in the 4th special. A few days later, he was forced to drop out of the rally, but the Catalan was back again in 2003, this time on the KTM team, producing a gutsy performance that testified to his tremendous mental strength: despite suffering a wrist fracture a few days before the finish, his experienced in endurance – see honours list – enabled him to hang on in there and clinch 11th place in the overall ranking. A model team player, he played a large part in the 2004 crowning of his friend and countryman Nani Roma, before a fall forced him to quit 5 days from the finish.
From one Dakar to the next, Marc Coma has enhanced his reputation. And after his display in the 2005 rally, when he finished second overall and pushed Cyril Despres hard right up until the last-but-one stage, he can no longer be regarded as still learning his trade. The winner of two World Cup rounds this season, Coma is now also free from the burden of having to share leadership of the team with Isidre Esteve Pujol, who recently signed for Gauloises. Supported by Sala, De Gavardo and Duran, Marc Coma has never been so well placed to challenge the favourite, Cyril Despres.
Marc Coma’s Dakar honours
2002 Abandoned Stage 9, Arras-Madrid-Dakar
2003 11th overall, Marseilles – Sharm El Sheik
2004 Abandoned Stage 14, Clermont-Ferrand - Dakar
2005 2nd overall, Barcelona – Dakar
car
Marc Coma (ESP)
Marc Coma numbers among the group of promising drivers who, if fate smiles upon them, could well add their name to the Dakar Rally winners’ list. For since he started out in raid rally driving, the 29-year-old Spaniard has followed a trajectory that offers considerable cause for optimism.
His debut, in the 2002 Arras-Madrid-Dakar riding a dual-cylinder Suzuki 900, was most notable for a 7th place obtained in the 4th special. A few days later, he was forced to drop out of the rally, but the Catalan was back again in 2003, this time on the KTM team, producing a gutsy performance that testified to his tremendous mental strength: despite suffering a wrist fracture a few days before the finish, his experienced in endurance – see honours list – enabled him to hang on in there and clinch 11th place in the overall ranking. A model team player, he played a large part in the 2004 crowning of his friend and countryman Nani Roma, before a fall forced him to quit 5 days from the finish.
From one Dakar to the next, Marc Coma has enhanced his reputation. And after his display in the 2005 rally, when he finished second overall and pushed Cyril Despres hard right up until the last-but-one stage, he can no longer be regarded as still learning his trade. The winner of two World Cup rounds this season, Coma is now also free from the burden of having to share leadership of the team with Isidre Esteve Pujol, who recently signed for Gauloises. Supported by Sala, De Gavardo and Duran, Marc Coma has never been so well placed to challenge the favourite, Cyril Despres.
Marc Coma’s Dakar honours
2002 Abandoned Stage 9, Arras-Madrid-Dakar
2003 11th overall, Marseilles – Sharm El Sheik
2004 Abandoned Stage 14, Clermont-Ferrand - Dakar
2005 2nd overall, Barcelona – Dakar
In the footsteps of Vatanen
NUMBER 307 - Volkswagen
Carlos Sainz (ESP) – Andreas Schulz (ALL)
After Ari Vatanen, Juha Kankkunen and Colin McRae, the Spaniard Carlos Sainz this year becomes the latest in an impressive list of multiple rally world champions to line up in the Dakar. The Madrid-born WRC record-holder with 26 victories who was crowned in 1990 and 1992 also boasts a quartet of runners-up titles and, in 17 years’ presence in the WRC, has mounted the final world championship podium on no less than 11 occasions. And therein lies perhaps the greatest strength of this man who was also Spanish squash champion at the age of 16: consistency. His 97 appearances on WRC podiums prove that beyond dispute!
Despite finishing 4th and 3rd respectively at the 2005 Turkish and Greek rallies, and still being as fast and enthusiastic as ever, “the Emperor†decided at the end of 2004, while doing freelance work for Citroen as a replacement for François Duval, to make way for the youngsters in the WRC. But after devoting several months to his family, Carlos Sainz received a string of proposals to proceed with his conversion. One of these came from Volkswagen at the start of the 2005 season with regard to his first Dakar participation. And for this eternally romantic Real Madrid supporter, such a tempting offer was hard to refuse.
Aged 43, Carlos Sainz is therefore embarking on the Dakar armed with a reputation for always being in contention for victory, but in what is his first participation, he is not openly targeting such an objective. A total raid rally novice, the Spaniard was initially counting on taking his first steps in the discipline at the Rally of the Pharaohs, and then in Dubai. But as Volkswagen opted not to enter him in these two events, preferring instead to conduct lengthy test sessions, Sainz has only driven his Race Touareg 2 competitively at the Baja Portalegre, where the terrain is very similar to what he is accustomed to in the WRC. Despite his excellent 3rd place overall, capped by a scratch during the last special, the double rally world champion is still nothing short of an amateur where the desert is concerned and will therefore have to undergo a steep learning curve before being able to attack.
But in this 28th Dakar marked by a return to navigation, this need for caution could work to his advantage, as he will be able to count on the experience of his German navigator Andreas Schulz, a double winner of the event in 2001 and 2003. But it remains to be seen if that will be enough to allow Carlos Sainz to equal the performance of Ari Vatanen, a winner in his first-ever Dakar in 1987…
The Dakar honours of Carlos Sainz
2006 First participation in the Euromilhoes-Lisbon-Dakar
Co-driver: Andreas SCHULZ (ALL)
- First participation in the Dakar in 1990
- Winner of the Dakar in 2001 with J. Kleinschmidt and in 2003 with H. Masuoka
- Dakar co-driver of Hiroshi Masuoka (94-2000, 2003, 2005), Jutta Kleinschmidt (01-02) and Andrea Mayer (2004)
Carlos Sainz (ESP) – Andreas Schulz (ALL)
After Ari Vatanen, Juha Kankkunen and Colin McRae, the Spaniard Carlos Sainz this year becomes the latest in an impressive list of multiple rally world champions to line up in the Dakar. The Madrid-born WRC record-holder with 26 victories who was crowned in 1990 and 1992 also boasts a quartet of runners-up titles and, in 17 years’ presence in the WRC, has mounted the final world championship podium on no less than 11 occasions. And therein lies perhaps the greatest strength of this man who was also Spanish squash champion at the age of 16: consistency. His 97 appearances on WRC podiums prove that beyond dispute!
Despite finishing 4th and 3rd respectively at the 2005 Turkish and Greek rallies, and still being as fast and enthusiastic as ever, “the Emperor†decided at the end of 2004, while doing freelance work for Citroen as a replacement for François Duval, to make way for the youngsters in the WRC. But after devoting several months to his family, Carlos Sainz received a string of proposals to proceed with his conversion. One of these came from Volkswagen at the start of the 2005 season with regard to his first Dakar participation. And for this eternally romantic Real Madrid supporter, such a tempting offer was hard to refuse.
Aged 43, Carlos Sainz is therefore embarking on the Dakar armed with a reputation for always being in contention for victory, but in what is his first participation, he is not openly targeting such an objective. A total raid rally novice, the Spaniard was initially counting on taking his first steps in the discipline at the Rally of the Pharaohs, and then in Dubai. But as Volkswagen opted not to enter him in these two events, preferring instead to conduct lengthy test sessions, Sainz has only driven his Race Touareg 2 competitively at the Baja Portalegre, where the terrain is very similar to what he is accustomed to in the WRC. Despite his excellent 3rd place overall, capped by a scratch during the last special, the double rally world champion is still nothing short of an amateur where the desert is concerned and will therefore have to undergo a steep learning curve before being able to attack.
But in this 28th Dakar marked by a return to navigation, this need for caution could work to his advantage, as he will be able to count on the experience of his German navigator Andreas Schulz, a double winner of the event in 2001 and 2003. But it remains to be seen if that will be enough to allow Carlos Sainz to equal the performance of Ari Vatanen, a winner in his first-ever Dakar in 1987…
The Dakar honours of Carlos Sainz
2006 First participation in the Euromilhoes-Lisbon-Dakar
Co-driver: Andreas SCHULZ (ALL)
- First participation in the Dakar in 1990
- Winner of the Dakar in 2001 with J. Kleinschmidt and in 2003 with H. Masuoka
- Dakar co-driver of Hiroshi Masuoka (94-2000, 2003, 2005), Jutta Kleinschmidt (01-02) and Andrea Mayer (2004)