The first part of the 48-hour marathon stage of Dakar 2024 claimed two victims among the top contenders. This Thursday, the overall leader so far, Yazeed Al Rajhi, was forced to retire, while Stéphane Peterhansel suffered a major delay. Meanwhile, his teammate Carlos Sainz is positioning himself to take the top spot overall.
It was right after 51km that Al Rajhi (Overdrive Racing/Toyota) came to a stop on the course after an incident. Previously, he had passed as the third fastest. The damages turned out to be irreparable and, although the driver and his navigator were unharmed, retirement was inevitable. In any case, Al Rajhi may resume in stage 7… but already without a chance to fight for a good position overall.
As for Peterhansel, who started as sixth overall, he had a mechanical problem in the Audi after kilometer 225. Until then, he was performing in the top five in the stage, but the breakdown cost precious time. The “Mr. Dakar” still aimed for the possibility of fighting for victory, trailing just over half an hour from the top before this stage.
The leading car drivers reached the fifth of the seven defined stopping points (point E). The pace is being set by Sainz (Audi) about 4m30s ahead of his teammate Mattias Ekström, and if it ended now, the Spaniard would take the lead of the race with approximately 16 seconds of margin over the Swede.
