Sainz nonetheless in competition for 2025 Dakar win regardless of rollover – Ford

Ford insists Carlos Sainz Sr nonetheless has all to play for within the 2025 Dakar Rally regardless of shedding heaps of time in a crash in the course of the 48-hour chrono stage on Sunday.

Having simply crossed the seventh checkpoint on the 325km mark, Sainz’s Ford Raptor flipped over and landed on its roof over sand, leaving him stranded within the Saudi desert.

His team-mate Mitch Guthrie Jr arrived on the scene quickly after to supply help, with the American supplying a rope that helped Sainz to get all 4 wheels of the automotive again on the bottom.

The rear of the Raptor sustained extreme injury within the incident and the Spaniard needed to take away main chunks of bodywork earlier than setting off as soon as once more.

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The four-time Dakar winner misplaced over 20 minutes within the stoppage and finally introduced his hobbled automotive to Bivouac E in twenty fifth place, virtually an hour down on pacesetter Yazeed Al-Rajhi of Overdrive Toyota.

He sits twenty second within the total classification, going through a deficit of 49m33s forward of the second a part of Stage 2 on Monday.

Malcolm Wilson, crew director of M-Sport Ford, revealed the reason for the accident and offered an in depth account of the state of the automotive following the stoppage.

“Carlos, sadly, had an issue at round kilometre 327,” he defined. “At that time, he was in first or second place, we’re undecided, so he was opening up the monitor.

‘He was on a dune they usually landed the wrong way up, with the roof of the automotive on the bottom. Mitch managed to assist him, after which he stopped for some time to clearly transfer some broken components and that form of factor.

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

Picture by: A.S.O.

“It appears like, from what we have seen, there is no structural injury. It has been working at an inexpensive tempo, flat out after the accident.

“[All Ford cars] can be collectively and hopefully we’ll have an opportunity to implement repairs. Then, an important factor is to deliver him again tomorrow, and from what appears to have been misplaced, it is perhaps round an hour, which on the second stage of the Dakar is rather a lot, however there is a lengthy method to go.”

The incident occurred shortly after Sainz had crossed a dune round Bisha in Saudi Arabia, though his automotive landed on comparatively flat and sandy terrain.

The 62-year-old was unfortunate that the crash befell in the course of the marathon stage, the place exterior help from crews is proscribed.

The Ford’s windshield was damaged on co-driver Lucas Cruz’ facet, with Cruz having to carry his door shut over 291 kilometres in the course of the the rest of the day.

Helped by different Ford runners, Sainz is now making certain the automotive is in ok form earlier than finishing the second a part of Stage 2 on Monday morning; the engine, suspensions, gearbox and chassis are reported to be undamaged.

“At the moment has been fairly a sophisticated stage,” Sainz mentioned. “After rolling over on a minimize dune, we had been capable of proceed due to the assistance of our team-mate Mitchell, however then we had extra issues: the automotive was overheating, we could not see properly due to the damaged glass and we punctured. The day went from unhealthy to worse.”

#226 Ford M-Sport Ford: Mattias Ekstrom, Emil Bergkvist

Picture by: Crimson Bull Content material Pool

Regardless of Sainz’s troubles, Ford continues to be wanting aggressive on its full manufacturing unit debut in Dakar, with Mattias Ekstrom holding fourth place within the common standings and Nani Roma working in seventh place.

“Nani [Roma] went very properly, at one level he and Mattias had been very shut,” Wilson added. “Plainly in direction of the top, earlier than everybody stopped on the service space, he misplaced a little bit of time in every sector.

“Perhaps he is had two knocks and brought precautions, so, if that is the case, hopefully he can restore the tyres tonight and be in higher form for tomorrow. Let’s have a look at once we hear from him, he is had one other robust day and he isn’t that far off the leaders.”