• Dakar. Carlos Sainz's extreme set-up: "Don't think about age, think about winning"

The Spanish

Carlos Sainz

(X-Raid Mini JCW), defender of the title in the car category, signed this Sunday victory in the first stage of

the Dakar Rally

, which for the second consecutive year is held in

Saudi Arabia

, and took the lead of the general.

The Madrilenian beat Frenchman

Stéphane Peterhansel

by 25 seconds

in the first stage, of 277 kilometers of special and 345 of link between the towns of

Jeddah and Bisha

, and commands in the general with a margin of 8 seconds over his partner.

In the first special of the toughest rally in the world, Carlos Sainz already made his aspirations clear.

At 58 he was placed at the top of the general classification after

squeezing the full potential of his Mini

.

The victory is especially commendable, considering that the reigning Dakar Rally champion started from

28th place

, weighed down by the

puncture that cost him 36 seconds

, compared to Qatar's Nasser Al-Attiyah, in Saturday's 11-kilometer prologue.

The winner of the prologue, however, had problems and Carlos Sainz recovered in a big way.

I expected a "tough" Sunday and it ended up being successful.

He had a thrilling duel with his great rival and teammate

Stéphane Perterhansel

, with whom he alternated in the first position in the final kilometers.

Sainz

was second at kilometer 222

.

He then gave up 3 minutes and 44 seconds with respect to the Frenchman but, when he seemed doomed to second position on Sunday's stage, he reacted in a big way.

He reached Bisha 25 seconds ahead

of Stéphane Peterhansel.

The Dakar Rally champion was also in front of the general classification with 8 seconds ahead of his teammate.

Czech Martin Prokop (Ford) is third, 2:59 behind Sainz.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more

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