Day of absolute happiness in the team Audi Motorsport. Like few times before, the Germans celebrated in their bunker inside the Dakar 2024 camp by having two of their cars in leading places at the start of the great adventure in Saudi Arabia: Stephane Peterhansel won the second stage, while his teammate, Carlos Sainzleads the general classification of cars, both with Audi RS Q e-tron.
The vehicle used by the German brand, in which it also competes Mattias Ekstromuses a revolutionary technology for the history of the competition, as it is powered by electric batteries, which in turn receive energy from a combustion engine.
“We did a very good job. After the Prologue, in which we started in an unexpected way, we recovered and found our way together with Lucas (Cruz, the navigator). It is always good to be ahead, but in a Dakar there is not much to say when it is just starting, there is still a lot to go through,” highlighted the Spanish driver.
Meanwhile, his teammate Peterhansel, legendary in the Dakar, with the partial victory equaled another historic, Ari Vatanen, with 50 wins. “It is an honor to tie Vatanen. In any case, these are victories in cars, I have many more with motorcycles,” highlighted the Frenchman.
The Argentinian Juan Cruz Yacopini He fell behind in the stage, placing 36th. In the light cars, Nicolás Cavigliasso was 9th and remains 8th in his category, while David Zille was difficult on the day.
In quadricycles, bad news for the national representation, since Francisco Moreno, one of the big favorites for victory, broke a suspension grill and was eliminated. In the last hours they were evaluating whether he would get involved in the race.
Manuel Andujar was third and maintains the same position in the general classification, 14 minutes behind Brazilian Marcelo Medeiros.
In motorcycles, Luciano Benavides stood out with the Husqvarna, finishing second, behind the Chilean Ignacio Cornejo and placing fourth overall, 13m47s behind the leader, Ross Branch (Hero). Diego Llanos from Rioja was 18th (22nd overall), ahead of Kevin Benavides (11th overall). Behind, Santiago Rostan (48° and 57°) and Sebastián Urquía (93° and 92).
On Monday the Half Marathon stage will begin, leaving for Al Salamiya, with a total distance of 733 kilometers. There they will have assistance of just two hours and on Tuesday they will continue towards Al Hofuf.