Dakar 2024: Laia Sanz passes the penultimate Dakar test

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• She got through the dreaded stage 11, not without difficulties, and is now one day away from celebrating what would be her 14th completed edition.
• The KH-7 rider and her co-driver Maurizio Gerini suffered a mishap with a wheel in the final part, but managed to finish 19th and second in 4x2.
• "It was clear to us that today would be a very difficult stage, so we set off being very vigilant not to get a puncture, and yet we still got a flat tire."

"Ten kilometers from the finish, a ball joint of a suspension wishbone broke, and we arrived dragging the wheel. We are very happy to have been able to finish, because this happens to you a little further back and it costs you hours."

Laia Sanz is just one day away from completing the Dakar for the 14th consecutive time, the third time in a row in a car. The KH-7 rider passed the penultimate major test of the Saudi event on Thursday, and it wasn't easy. The rider from Corbera de Llobregat (Barcelona) and her co-driver Maurizio Gerini arrived at the finish line with a wheel dragging. Fortunately, the breakdown occurred only 10 kilometers from the end and they were able to finish without losing too many positions; in 19th place overall and second in T1.2 (4x2).

The rally organizers had designed a 420-kilometer timed route between Al-Ula and Yanbu that turned out to be nothing less than a hell of stones and broken terrain, winding passes through canyons and countless other traps. The great fear of all the participants who came to the starting line this morning was whether they would reach the finish line without a puncture (more than one tire), whether the mechanicals would hold up and how physical a day that was very similar to the second stage of last year's edition would be for them.

The forecasts have not disappointed, and there have been big losers in the course of the special. This led Laia Sanz to start with caution. The day before she lost two tires due to a failure in the self-inflating system, and the goal for today was to avoid at all costs being in a situation that would have forced her to wait for the assistance truck on the track, which would have seriously jeopardized all the work done in the previous ten days. The decision was not easy to make because on the other side of the balance weighed - and a lot - attacking to regain 15th place overall and second in the two-wheel drive category, but in the end the choice made itself.

"We knew that today would be a very difficult stage, so we were very careful not to get a puncture, but we still got a puncture. It's a bit annoying because we lost time by slowing down and, on top of that, by having to change a wheel, which is what we wanted to avoid. In any case, we decided to continue with caution and enter the rocky areas very slowly, because we saw many participants with problems," explained Sanz.

"We couldn't do much more either, because we've been going all day in the dust of other cars," he details. "We went ahead with patience, Maurizio navigated well and, ten kilometers from the end, in a part where we were already careful because we had a rear wheel that was slowly losing air, a ball joint of a suspension wishbone broke. We didn't have the parts to try to repair it, so we continued to the end and arrived dragging the left front wheel. We are very happy to have been able to finish, because this happens a little further back and it costs you hours", according to the 13-time Dakar finisher, who has lost one place in the overall standings and now occupies 17th position, just over 8 minutes from the Top 15.

Be that as it may, Laia Sanz is one day away from extending - once again - a record-breaking statistic, but first she will have to face the 12th stage, starting and finishing in Yanbu, and the 175 timed kilometers that will bring the 46th edition of the Dakar Rally to a close.

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

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