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Carles Falcon, a Spanish rider, is seriously injured in a Dakar crash, with Carlos Sainz leading the cars
An incident toward the finish of Sunday’s Dakar Rally’s second stage in the Saudi Arabian desert sent Spanish motorcyclist Carles Falcon to the hospital with critical injuries.
Reporters were informed by Race Director David Castera that although Falcon had no pulse, the first physician to arrive on the scene managed to revive him.
Veteran Frenchman Stephane Peterhansel won his 50th automobile stage of a record-breaking Dakar career as well-known names started to factor back in and Audi’s Carlos Sainz of Spain took the lead.
Dakar legend Peterhansel, dubbed ‘Monsieur Dakar’ with 14 victories from 1991 to 2021, clinched the stage from Al Henakiyah to Al Duwadimi, edging out nine-time world rally champion Sebastien Loeb by 29 seconds. The win marked Peterhansel’s 83rd in his career, tying the car record with Ari Vatanen. At 58, he moved to ninth overall.
Three-time Dakar champion Sainz finished eighth on the 463km stage. Yazeed Al Rajhi of Saudi Arabia secured the second spot overall, trailing Sainz by one minute and 51 seconds. Loeb climbed to third, narrowing the gap to Sainz by four minutes and 17 seconds.
Defending champion Nasser Al-Attiyah faced setbacks, finishing fourth on the stage and dropping to seventh overall, over 12 minutes behind the lead.
“We pushed from the beginning, but after we broke the rear, we stopped for more than 10 minutes to repair,” Al-Attiyah, a five-time winner, explained. “With all the problems yesterday and today, we are still in the game; it’s only 12 minutes overall.”
Guillaume de Mevius, the overnight leader, lost 27 minutes to Peterhansel and slid from first to fifth place after having to start first on the road.
“It was a challenging day for us,” the Belgian added.
“Since we led, I believe the first 200 km went well. A little bit further on, Carlos overtook us when we got lost.
“Then we were in the dust of Carlos and then we got lost a second time and then we got a puncture and then everything after was more difficult.”
Despite finishing 11th in the motorbike stage, Ross Branch of Botswana managed to hold the overall lead on two wheels, with Jose Ignacio Cornejo of Chile trailing him by two minutes and 55 seconds.
An American rider, Mason Klein was third overnight when he experienced mechanical issues and needed two hours to fix them.
