Dakar 2024: Great first stage for Laia Sanz in the Dakar 2024

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• She manages to overcome the difficulty of having to start the special from 60th place to finish in a creditable 24th absolute position.
• Her KH-7 has also achieved her first podium in the 4x2 category, in which she competes alongside her co-pilot Maurizio Gerini with the Astara 02 Concept.
• “We have started strong. We knew we had to push where we could because we ran the risk of being stuck in behind positions for several days if we didn't manage to finish in a good place today.”
• “The result is very good and will allow us to leave in a good position tomorrow, although I keep thinking that we could have finished much better if we had finished in the top 20, for example, instead of so far back.”

Laia Sanz has started the 2024 Dakar Rally strong. If the day before, in the non-competitive prologue, he had to resign himself to obtaining 60th place in the starting order for the inaugural stage, this Saturday Three Kings Day, he has drawn on experience, will and good work to overcome the 414 kilometers timed between Al-Ula and Al Henakiyah (Saudi Arabia) in a good position. The KH-7 driver, enrolled in the Astara team, was 24th in the stage – the same position she occupies in the general classification – and third in her category, the so-called T1.2, reserved for 4x2 traction vehicles. .

At the controls of the Astara 02 Concept, and co-piloted by the Italian Maurizio Gerini, Sanz went out with a bang this morning. She has done so very late, which has forced her to refine to the limit the always difficult balance between risk and caution, in order to recover as many positions as possible.

“We have started strong. We knew that we had to push where we could because by starting in 60th place we ran the risk of being trapped in backward positions for several days if we did not manage to finish in a good place today,” explains the Spanish

The great difficulty was in the amount of dust raised by the cars in front: “It was very difficult to overtake, but we pushed as hard as we could, although at some points we had to stop the car because we couldn't see absolutely anything.”

“Fortunately, the first part of the special was sandier and did not present as many problems, but afterwards it was very complicated. Of the 414 kilometers of the section, we have done about 300 with very little visibility. Then we passed through some rocky areas where it was very easy to puncture. With Maurizio we have made the decision, I think the right one, to slow down there so as not to have to stop to change a wheel, and I think it has turned out well, although I must admit that at some moments it seemed to us that we were wasting a lot of time and we have “I had to be patient,” describes the 13-time Dakar finisher.

Despite all the difficulties, Laia Sanz and Maurizio Gerini have overtaken around twenty cars on the track to finish in a very positive 24th absolute position, 29 minutes and 53 seconds behind the first, and on their first podium in the two-wheeled category. motors. “The result is very good and will allow us to leave in a good position tomorrow, although I keep thinking that we could have finished much better if we had finished in the top 20, for example, instead of so far back,” explains the KH-7 driver.

This Sunday, the Catalan pilot will face the second stage of the Dakar, which will link Al Henakiyah with Al Duwadimi, with another not inconsiderable 462 kilometers of timed, of the total of 654 that the day will bring.

Automatic translation of the Spanish version available on www.todoterreno.pt
Source KH-7 Sport / Laia Sanz's official press release

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