Carlos Sainz and co-driver Lucas Cruz of the X-Raid Mini JCW team put on a spectacular show and finished the stage fastest with a time of 03:38:27 hours. This is the second special stage victory for Carlos Sainz in the 2021 Dakar Rally. Overdrive Toyota team’s Yazeed Al Rajhi along with co-driver Dirk Von Zitzewitz came out of nowhere and finished the stage second fastest. Nasser Al-Attiyah and co-driver Mathieu Baumel of Team Toyota Gazoo Racing who were fourth till 303km into the stage, made up time in the end and finished third.
Stephane Peterhansel and Edouard Boulanger of the X-Raid Mini Team lost third place to Al-Attiyah when the Toyota Gazoo Racing driver went absolutely ballistic, making up nine seconds towards the end of the stage. Sebastian Loeb of team BRX had a tough stage and lost a lot of time when a suspension arm in his car broke 97km into the stage.
General rankings after Stage 6
Stephane Peterhansel continues to lead overall. But today’s stage allowed Nasser Al-Attiyah to close the gap to Peterhansel’s time by around 18 seconds. Carlos Sainz remains in third place and his stellar driving today allowed him to reduce the gap behind his teammate Peterhansel to 40:39 minutes in the general rankings.
Yesterday’s stage, touted as the toughest in the 2021 Dakar so far, proved to be challenging for most competitors and resulted in a delay in the flag off for today’s stage. Due to the delayed departure, the organizers cut down the special stage by 100km.
Tomorrow marks the first and only rest day in the 2021 Dakar. Participants will use this time to restore their energy and morale to push towards the next six stages. Stage 7, which kicks off on Sunday will see the competitors traverse from Ha’il to Sakaka for a total 738km including a 471km special stage.
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