Austin Jones: "I guess this just isn't our year"

Dakar 2024 | Stage 10 | ALULA > ALULA
January 17 ^th 2024 - 17:25 [GMT + 3]

Austin Jones, a two-time Dakar champion in the lightweight prototype category, has seen better days. The American finished a disappointing seventh in stage 10 and dropped another haul of more than 8 minutes to the winner. Two days from the finish, the Can Am driver is fifth overall, 1 h 27 behind the leader but just 5 minutes from Rokas Baciuška in fourth place.

"Really dusty today. We had good pace in the beginning. We ended up catching a few people and getting past them. On the straights, we got blown by and sat in the dust for the rest of the day. Not really much you could do. We just kinda sat up and tried to keep the car in one piece. The car is fine. Just another day done, just clocking off the days. There's been a lot of rumours that the next stage is going to be the hardest stage of the rally. I'm excited to see it. Hopefully, there'll be some carnage out there and maybe a little slot for us to peek our heads in. We're just cruising, doing our best and just trying to get to the finish every day. I'm definitely disappointed. Winning the last two years... You only get the chance to win three in a row so many times in life. So, for all of this to go this way, it's not ideal. We're staying positive, and we're all good, and happy to be here, lucky to be here, but at the same time, we expect a lot better out of ourselves and we're not quite meeting it. I guess this just isn't our year."