The Latest Breaking News from Carlos Sainz Sr

Carlos Sainz Sr made history at the 2024 Dakar Rally by becoming the oldest driver ever to win the prestigious event at a remarkable age of 61. 

Audi has faced heavy backlash over the way its motorsport division has been managed over the last few years. The decision to phase out all its sportscar racing programmes and go all-in on Formula 1 has aggrieved even the most loyal fans of the German marque. Even former teams and…

Sainz Sr led nearly the entirety of the 12-stage, two-week marathon in Saudi Arabia to score his fourth career victory in Dakar, cementing his position as one of the greatest rally drivers of all time.

Sainz staved off a fierce challenge from Prodrive’s Sebastien Loeb to claim top honours in the 46th edition of Dakar Rally, beating Overdrive’s Guillaume de Mevius by 1h20m as Loeb slipped to third in the final classification.

Thursday’s 420km test between Al-’Ula and Yanbu marked Loeb’s last real chance of overhauling Audi’s Carlos Sainz Sr in the overall standings, with Friday’s final stage being too short to make a serious impact.

The 420km test between Al-'Ula and Yanbu was expected to be one of the toughest stages of 2024, as it ran through some of the areas that caused so many punctures in last year's edition of the rally-raid.

Loeb began the 371km Alula loop stage on the back foot as he briefly stopped at 53km, but fought back to gain five minutes on overall leader Sainz at the 225km checkpoint. 

Loeb made a low-key start to Sunday’s 483km test between Riyadh and Al-Duwadimi, but the nine-time World Rally champion was gradually able to make his way to the front, taking his third stage victory of the year with a margin of 7m06s over Toyota’s Lucas Moraes.

As the 549km test around Shubaytah resumed on Friday, Loeb sat third in the order behind Audi duo Carlos Sainz Sr and Mattias Ekstrom, with 5m19s to make up and only a third of the distance remaining.

Prodrive driver Loeb sat a distant ninth in the general classification heading into the fourth stage in Saudi Arabia, having lost a considerable amount of time on the opening day due to punctures and a broken rear tow link - and again on Monday with more tyre troubles.

In an ultra-competitive Al Duwadimi to Al Salamiya pass covering 438km, which saw the stage lead swap between multiple runners, a four-way victory fight developed between Toyota’s Moraes, Audi’s Mattias Ekstrom, Overdrive’s Al-Rajhi and defending champion Nasser Al-Attiyah for Prodrive.