Following 6th in 2022 and 2nd last year, this year, with his Toyota HDJ 80, the other Carlos dominated an edition that will go down as one of the most hotly contested since its creation. Challenged by Ondřej Klymčiw in the first week, another regular in the consolation places like Carlos, it was then Lorenzo Traglio who threatened to come back to within a point of the Spaniard with two days to go. Both the Czech’s Škoda and the Italian’s Nissan Pathfinder suffered minor mechanical problems. That is a detail that cannot be forgiven when fighting against an ‘80’. Carlos Santaolalla Milla and Jan Rosa I Vinas therefore won in Yanbu. No title holder has yet managed to retain the title on the Dakar Classic, but the Spaniards look like they could become serial success collectors, just like their countryman from Madrid.
SSV: DE SOULTRAIT GOES DOWN THE WIRE
Xavier De Soultrait and his co-pilot Martin Bonnet can stop holding their breath now that they have made it to the finish. Nonetheless, it was a close thing for the two Frenchman in their Polaris. For this Dakar, the American factory went one step further, developing a lighter, sharper, higher-performance RZR PRO R. The recipe worked from the outset, with the Sébastien Loeb Racing (SLR) duo taking victory on the prologue to give a foretaste of what was to come. De Soultrait was a regular and consistent performer and also took advantage of the ups and downs experienced by some of his rivals, such as Gerard Farrés, to make his way to the top of the race hierarchy, which he reached on the evening of stage 7.
With three victories to his name, João Ferreira did try to play spoilsport, but the Portuguese driver lost more than an hour at the end of stage 9. After respectively winning stages 10 and 11, Sara Price and Jérôme de Sadeleer then placed themselves among the contenders. Following a penalty on stage 10, ‘XDS’ only had a lead of a little more than ten minutes over the American, who put herself out of the race for the title the following day by losing more than one hour due to a navigation mistake. As for de Sadeleer, he almost succeeded in his mission by coming to within three minutes of the leader with 174 kilometres left before the finish. However, like an old Dakar veteran, de Soultrait held on. He did not let his Swiss rival out of his sight and in the end only lost around twenty seconds overall. As a result, he has won his first tile on the Dakar. To complete an already rich harvest for the Polaris camp, Florent Vayssade, de Soultrait’s team-mate, won the final special stage. It was a successful gamble for Polaris, who put an end to an almost unchallenged reign by Can-Am.
TRUCKS: MAGIC MACIK
The Czech Republic flag fluttering in the breeze above the Lac Rose is a classic image from the 1990s, an era synonymous with the Tatra driven by Karel Loprais, who picked up his last triumph in 2001. Back home, to pick up the torch, his countrymen were naturally counting on his nephew, Aleš Loprais, who has come near to triumph without ever obtaining consecration (3rd in 2007, 4th in 2015, 5th in 201921). In the end, it was Martin Macík who put his country back at the top of the truck category, with plenty of panache. And yet, at first nobody had seemed able to beat Janus van Kasteren in the fight for the title, not even Aleš Loprais, his main rival last year before a premature exit. Loprais tried valiantly at the beginning of the race, but van Kasteren was always a step ahead. As for Macík, he took time to warm up. After having been distanced by three quarters of an hour by the evening of stage 4, he displayed patience, waiting to pounce on his rivals’ slightest mistakes. As the saying goes, time comes to he who waits. During the 48 HR Chrono stage, the sixth stage which was contested over two days and which Macík deemed to be the hardest out of his 12 participations on the Dakar, Loprais lost more than 1 hour in the dunes of the Empty Quarter. The sanction was almost three times as bad for van Kasteren, crushing the Dutchman’s hopes of defending his title. This propelled Macík to the top of the general rankings. Behind the wheel of his faithful Iveco affectionately nicknamed ‘Cenda’, Macík featured in the top three for each of the stages since day five of the rally. With four stage wins under his belt and a lead of almost 2 hours on arrival in Yanbu, the crew of ‘Cenda’ ultimately enjoyed an untroubled second week of the race.
