The Qatari driver Nasser Al-Attiyah (Prodrive) won Wednesday's stage in the car category of the Dakar Rally, in the dunes of the Empty Quarter desert (Saudi Arabia), and the Chilean Pablo Quintanilla did so on motorcycles.
The Qatari surpassed the Frenchman Guerlain Chicherit (Toyota) at the finish line by 1 minute and 51 seconds, and is 9 minutes 03 seconds behind in a general classification that is still led by the Saudi Yazeed Al-Rajhi (Toyota), who placed fourth this Wednesday , two minutes from the winner.
Frenchman Sébastien Loeb (Prodrive) attempted a bluff by deliberately skipping a mandatory checkpoint, which cost him a 15-minute penalty, finishing 21 minutes and 13 seconds behind, but with the possibility of gaining an advantage in the stage on Thursday and Friday , one of the toughest of this edition of the Dakar.
Carlos Sainz, for his part, lost 9 minutes and 2 seconds and falls to third position overall, eleven and a half minutes behind the leader.
"The strategy we had was that if they came in [for Al Attiyah and his co-pilot], we would stop for three minutes, and that's what we did. We'll see if it's a mistake or a success, anything is possible," Sainz analyzed at the finish line, with uncertainty about what will happen in the next few hours with a special 48-hour stage.
On motorcycles, Joan Barreda was out for more than 10 minutes this Wednesday after a fall that forced him to go to the medical center and his chances of winning the Dakar are now remote.
Stage 6 of the 2024 Dakar Rally is one of the great novelties of this edition. This is a 48-hour marathon stage that will take you around Shubaytah for two days. 532 kilometers of the 766 total will be included in the classification.
The highlight: at 4:00 p.m. on the first day of the competition, participants have to stop at the next bivouac they arrive at. There they will be alone before embarking on the second part of the route at 07:00 on the morning of January 12.
Only participants will be informed of the times and distances of their competitors at the finish line.
As a particularity, cars and motorcycles will not follow the same route, so the car drivers will not be able to follow the tracks left by the two wheels, so strategy will play a very important role.
Stage 6 of the Dakar 2024 (Shubaytah - Shubaytah), which takes place this Thursday and Friday, January 11 and 12, can be followed in the special summary on television every day starting at 9:45 p.m. on Teledeporte and RTVE Play .
