Sainz struggles in "very difficult to guess" and "pure" opening stage of Dakar

A tough start to Dakar for the four-time champion who will now have to face the marathon stage from a compromised starting position

Carlos Sainz Sr admitted that he struggled to understand Saturday’s opening stage of the Dakar Rally, saying it was “very difficult to guess” and more akin to the event’s original roots.

Leading Ford’s attack in the 431km test around Bisha in Saudi Arabia, reigning champion Sainz suffered an early setback when he lost time with a puncture on his new Raptor T1+.

The matters were complicated by the fact that Saturday’s test preceded the all-important 48-hour marathon stage, so there was no incentive for drivers to finish at the front and be the first to encounter the terrain.

Like several of his rivals, Sainz too purposely slowed down in the final 80km towards the finish line in order to lose as many positions as possible and boost his prospects for Sunday.

Ultimately, he finished seventh but classified eighth after a 10s penalty for exceeding the speed limit, 3m27s behind Toyota driver Seth Quintero who was elevated to first after being awarded extra time for helping stranded Century driver Laia Sainz.

But given the tough nature of the stage, and the fact that several of his rivals secured more favourable starting positions for the marathon stage, Sainz conceded that it was a tough opening day.

“It was a first stage that was quite significant, quite a Dakar stage, pure Dakar, with a bit of everything,” the Spaniard told reporters including Motorsport.com.

Detail of car #225 Ford M-Sport Ford: Carlos Sainz, Lucas Cruz

Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool

“You can see that in this area there is a lot of vegetation, and the truth is that the cars have arrived very damaged, it is difficult not to touch you with anything, so I have punctured.

“I thought that with that time and the pace I was on I could give myself a final position further back than I had, but it's very difficult to guess, very difficult to get it right, I'll take it for granted.”

Dacia’s Nasser Al-Attiyah completely stopped on the road for almost 10 minutes in order to drop positions, eventually ending up 20th in the timesheets.

This means the Qatari won’t have to sweep the road for his rivals in the near-1,000km test covering Sunday and Monday, while also having a visual aid in the form of the tracks laid out by other drivers.

Sainz revealed that he could have put together a better strategy for the opening segment of Dakar, with organisers having shifted the marathon stage from week two to the beginning of the event in 2025.

“I would have liked to start, at least 15th, but it's not easy to get the strategy right, and maybe we thought we were going to be further behind going so far ahead today,” he explained.

#225 Ford M-Sport Ford: Carlos Sainz, Lucas Cruz

Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool

Sainz also lost a navigational tablet during the stage, which meant that he was having to rely on a secondary device to find his way through the desert.

”It made the stage more complicated, more stressful, we did not have the Sentinel [safety feature to avoid collisions]," the 62-year-old said.

“We had the second tablet, but the Sentinel was not connected to that tablet and then the puncture also threw us off a bit, we did not know how much we had lost.”