Carlos Sainz: “If the gap is one hour, then I don’t need to rush”

Dakar 2024 | Stage 11 | ALULA > YANBU
January 18 ^th 2024 - 16:48 [GMT + 3]

Carlos Sainz, who finished third today, is more importantly free from the threat posed by Sébastien Loeb, who lost time on the special. The Spaniard can now look forward to the last stage with peace of mind.

“For us it was fine, we had one puncture, a slow puncture close to the finish. After we caught Seb, we drove carefully. It was very difficult with so many stones. Sometimes you just looked five metres in front of the car and drove slowly and see if you are lucky. I was driving extremely slowly. Sometimes it is worth driving slowly, but sometimes even driving slowly you can get a puncture. There are still 170 km to go. I know very well on this rally especially you need to cross the finishing line and this is what we are going to try and do. We’re now concentrating on tomorrow and we’ll have a good look at the car because the stage was super, super rough, and see if we can finish tomorrow. If the gap is one hour, then I don’t need to rush”.