On the first day of the new year, Saudi Arabia kicked off the 45th Dakar Rally Raid, and it kicked off with the victory of Carlos Sainz Sr., performing in the Audi RS Q e-tron off-road electric car.
Carlos Sainz Jr., a Ferrari racer now on winter break, watched him complete the first 368 km high-speed section from a helicopter, and he decided to personally support his father.
“Of course, the adventure couldn’t have started better! – shared the evening Carlos, communicating with the press service of the rally-raid. – I followed my father’s car in a helicopter and watched him win this special stage – it was generally perfect.
I can say that he is very happy, and together with my mother and my girlfriend, of course, we are happy for him. It was a great day. I first watched it from a helicopter, but when we just caught up with it, it had to stop because of a flat tire.
I then said, “Okay, I should probably fly out of here because it looks like I’m bringing him bad luck.” My heart even sank when I saw him stop – I thought everything was over for him. But he changed the steering wheel and drove on – luckily only two minutes were lost.
And then I saw how he attacked with full force all the way to the finish of the special stage to make up for lost time, and he won – it was incredible! Watching the cars from a helicopter is very interesting as I generally like the Dakar rally raid and I follow the course of events very closely.
The terrain the route passed through today was particularly difficult – we saw rocky ravines and sand dunes, all against the backdrop of mountains. Here in Saudi Arabia, the scenery is perfect for the Dakar, and the places we visited are absolutely incredible!”
Naturally, Carlos was asked if in the future he would follow the example of his father and Fernando Alonso and try the famous rally raid.
“Now I have a very busy life, also because of Formula 1, but who knows what awaits us in the future? I wouldn’t rule anything out!” replied Carlos.
When Sainz Sr. crossing the finish line first yesterday, it was his 42nd special stage win in all his years in the Dakar; second was Sebastien Loeb, who is 10 seconds behind the leader, third was Matthias Ekström, the Spaniard’s partner in the Audi works team.
Source: F1 News
I am Christopher Clyde, an experienced journalist and content writer with a passion for sports. I have been writing about Formula 1 news for the past five years and am currently employed as an author at athletistic.com, one of the top sports websites in the US.
