The day after a setback is never easy. Few times in her extensive, varied and prolific sporting career has she had to live through such a bitter disappointment as the one she had to digest last night, after learning of the decision of the technical commissioners of the International Automobile Federation (FIA) not to let her take the start of the second stage this Sunday, January 5. Laia Sanz, a 14-time Dakar Rally finisher, was left without any chance of making the 15th notch on her driver's helmet.
The outcome of her short history in the 47th edition of the rally of rallies was cruel, tremendously cruel. The KH-7 driver arrived on the starting podium without any kilometres of preparation behind her in 2024; only those she was able to cover in the last Dakar, the few she was able to do without problems in the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge at the end of February with a side-by-side in the Challenger category, and those that earned her the runner-up position in the Extreme E championship. Not a single one with the Century CR-6T that she intended to take to the finish line in Shubaytah, in Saudi Arabia. But that was no impediment to her showing very quickly that her evolution as a car driver is on an upward path that has not reached its peak and that she is struggling to make her way in the expensive and difficult world of four wheels. The goal of winning the T1.2 (4x2) and improving on last year's top 15 was legitimate and achievable.
In the short prologue on Friday (29 kilometres), she showed great solvency by beating the second vehicle in the 4x2 category by more than half a minute and finishing 23rd overall without much effort. She had a great chance of doing well, together with her co-driver Maurizio Gerini, in these first days of the toughest, most terrifying and captivating race in motorsport. Now, Laia Sanz has probably discovered a new meaning to those three adjectives, after being forced to retire after overturning 70 kilometres from the end of the first stage, despite repairing the car and completing the 413 timed kilometres, in addition to the 86 liaison kilometres of the route. In the end, the old, well-known and over-pronounced cliché was heard again with the usual resignation: “C’est le Dakar, boss”.
This morning, after a bad night, Laia Sanz made herself available to journalists at the Bisha camp (Saudi Arabia) who wanted to know more about her story. These were her answers:
“I haven't been able to sleep much. It's a tough day. Seeing how everyone is going out in the race today and that we can't, after what it cost us to get there, is hard to accept.”
“Yesterday the day didn't start well. We had a great starting position that we couldn't take advantage of very well. We ran out of third gear at kilometre 20. Being such a technical stage, which was much more difficult than they said, we had to go from second to fourth and from fourth to second, watching very carefully. We thought we wouldn't finish because of this problem. In fact, we were going slowly, and even so, looking at the times and the classification, it turns out that we were saving the day really well. Then, our navigation instruments stopped working, so we decided to go even slower. Then, Giniel de Villiers passed us and, in the dust, we hit a rock that I didn't see, it lifted our car and, although we almost saved it, we ended up overturning. Afterwards, I had to go and see what had happened because, sometimes, when you're in a cloud of dust, you don't see what's there. We hit the rock because we were 10 centimetres outside the rut. It's even more annoying, because we weren't pushing. It was a day of survival yesterday.”
“It was a disappointment. It's hard to go to the Dakar, and I think it was a year to do very well, both in the 4x2 category and in the general classification. In fact, I was surprised in the prologue to be so far ahead without having tested the car. These things happen. After 15 Dakars, being out of one seems to me to be something unique, what happens is that it's a year in which I wanted to do well, to redeem myself, and it hurts a little more.”
“What I have done so far in these 14 Dakars has been very brutal. I think about it and I value it. Surely, I had to go home statistically, but to do it on the first day and in this way, hurts more. Yesterday we suffered a lot to make up for it and get to the end of the stage, and then, for two millimetres of deviation of the car's bars, they exclude you, it hurts.”
Disclaimer:
As a service to the sport we all love and follow, Rally-Raid Network posts numerous media releases from a wide variety of sources on our website. Due to the large number, and some times short time available, it is nearly impossible to review each public release. These articles are written by reporters or press officers who work for various organizers, teams, drivers, riders, and other parties, and they do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Rally-Raid Network.
