The Spanish Cristina Gutiérrez wins the T3.1 prototype category and Laia Sanz, 15th overall, was third in the T1.2
On motorcycles, American Ricky Brabec (Honda) wins his second Dakar
The Spanish driver Carlos Sainz (Audi) has conquered the 2024 Dakar Rally in cars, his fourth ‘Touareg’ and the first for the German brand, after completing an almost seamless rally in which he knew how to deal with a tough and demanding course and save the problems that overtook its great rivals.
Sainz, without winning any stage, has been by far the most consistent driver, the best navigator and, with a high pace and driving speed, he wins this 2024 Dakar Rally, the fourth for him after the victories in 2010, 2018 and 2020, with more than 1:20 hours of margin over the Belgian Guillaume de Mevius (Overdrive).
After the innovative Crono 48H and a stage 11 that was the key to this Dakar, with a breakdown and several punctures for a Sebastien Loeb (BRX) who was, at that point, Sainz’s only rival, everything was clear for judgment. Sainz, a conservative, once saw that Loeb was standing, he knew that he must have a head.
So in this twelfth and final stage, a 175-kilometer special around Yanbu, he drew on his experience and courage to know that the objective was none other than to reach the finish line without setbacks. He should not look at the time, due to the great margin difference he had, but rather at the terrain to avoid traps.
At the finish line, in Yanbu, the one who took one last joy was the Frenchman Seb Loeb with his BRX Hunter, who won his fifth stage victory in this Dakar 2024 and came close to recovering second place overall, but finally the Belgian Guillaume de Mevius will be second in this edition, ahead of Loeb and behind Sainz.
The stage did not have much success, beyond that fight between Loeb and Mevius for second place overall. Loeb won with a margin of 5:09 minutes over the Belgian and 5:21 over the Lithuanian from the X-Raid Vaidotas Zala, third. Carlos Sainz entered with his Audi in 17th position, 10:50 minutes behind Loeb, aware that he did not have to push, with Nani Roma (Ford) twentieth and Laia Sanz (Astara) 26th.
A CARLOS SAINZ OF RECORD
With this 2024 Dakar Rally, Carlos Sainz equals the four victories in the toughest rally in the world of the historic Finnish driver Ari Vatanen. He is one Dakar behind Qatari Nasser Al-Attiyah (5 wins) and is still far away, almost unreachable with 8 Dakars under his belt (in cars, 14 in total), his now teammate ‘Monsieur Dakar’; Stephane Peterhansel.
But Carlos Sainz always leaves his mark and his four Dakars have perhaps even more merit if you take into account that he won them with four different cars from four different brands; Volkswagen in 2010, Peugeot in 2018, Mini in 2020 and Audi in 2024. A feat worthy of a ‘Matador’ who, at 61, is also the oldest winner of the test.
In addition, he is the first driver to win with a car powered by electric motors and with a range extender -3 MGU05 from Formula E and a 2.0 TFSI engine from the DTM-. The pity is that, except for a last-minute change thanks to this victory, Audi was going to say goodbye to the Dakar Rally to focus on its entry into Formula 1 in 2026. If so, Sainz could look for another car to make it a winner.
In the general classification, Carlos Sainz beat Guillaum de Mevius (Overdrive Racing) by 1:20:25 hours and Loeb by 1:25:12, with the Frenchman Guerlain Chicherit (Overdrive) fourth at 1:35:59 and the Czech Martin Prokop (Orlen) fifth, 2:16:43 hours behind the Spaniard.
And the also Spanish Laia Sainz completed a great feat with her Astara, culminating a new Dakar Rally – she has always been a ‘finisher’ – and doing so in a creditable, almost above expectations, fifteenth place in the overall car standings ( 4:43 hours behind his ‘master’ Sainz) and third in his 4×2 category.
CRISTINA GUTIÉRREZ WINS IN ‘CHALLENGER’ AND MAKES HISTORY
Just behind the Catalan, in the absolute general classification of cars, Cristina Gutiérrez finished 16th in this Dakar 2024 with her Taurus from the Red Bull Off-Road JR Team USA by BFG. Long team name, much more complicated than that of Cristina Gutiérrez who was proclaimed champion, for the first time, of her 3.1 category of light prototypes.
The 32-year-old from Burgos makes history in this Dakar by winning the Challenger category. She is the first Spanish woman to win a category of the toughest rally in the world and only the second woman to do so in history, with the German pioneer Jutta Kleinschmidt being the first to do so, in cars, in 2001.
Gutiérrez, who was third in 2022 and fourth, but with two stage victories, in 2023 within this T3 category, made sure that the third time is lucky. In this Dakar 2024 he won with 35 minutes of margin over his great rival, the American Mitchell Guthrie (Taurus), and in almost an hour over the Lithuanian Rokas Baciuska, who has the Catalan Oriol Vidal as co-pilot.
SECOND DAKAR FOR BRABEC EN MOTORCYCLES
On motorcycles, the stage was won by Argentine Kevin Benavides (KTM) with one minute ahead of his teammate and two-time Dakar winner Toby Price, while his brother Luciano Benavides (Husqvarna) was third at 1:14. But the main protagonist was Ricky Brabec with his Honda, seventh at 3:31 and ahead of his great rival in the general classification.
With this result, Ricky Brabec confirmed his victory in this Dakar 2024, the second he has won after the 2020 edition and in a great return after abandoning in 2023. After a nice fight with the Botswana Ross Branch (Hero), in the end The American won with a margin of 10:53 minutes, with Honda’s Frenchman Adrien van Beveren third.
