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 automobile again on the bottom.

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

The four-time Dakar winner misplaced over 20 minutes within the stoppage and finally introduced his hobbled automobile 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, dealing with a deficit of 49m33s forward of the second a part of Stage 2 on Monday.

Malcolm Wilson, group director of M-Sport Ford, revealed the reason for the accident and offered an in depth account of the state of the automobile 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 and so they landed the other way up, with the roof of the automobile on the bottom. Mitch managed to assist him, after which he stopped for some time to clearly transfer some broken components and that type of factor.

“It appears like, from what we have seen, there isn’t any structural harm. It has been working at an affordable tempo, flat out after the accident.

“[All Ford cars] might be collectively and hopefully we’ll have an opportunity to implement repairs. Then, an important factor is to carry him again tomorrow, and from what appears to have been misplaced, it is possibly round an hour, which on the second stage of the Dakar is so much, 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 automobile landed on comparatively flat and sandy terrain.

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

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 automobile 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.

“Immediately has been fairly a sophisticated stage,” Sainz stated. “After rolling over on a lower dune, we have been capable of proceed because of the assistance of our team-mate Mitchell, however then we had extra issues: the automobile was overheating, we could not see nicely 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: Pink Bull Content material Pool

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

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

“Possibly 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 examine once we hear from him, he is had one other robust day and he is not that far off the leaders.”