The reason both Dakar leaders stopped in stage 10, Sainz for 10 minutes and Loeb for five minutes, was punctures.
Loeb had two left hand side flat tyres, and of all the days, the on-baord jacks failed to work – on the left hand side, so Loeb had to drop the opposite side of the car into a hole to raise the left wheel into the air to change it.
Carlos Sainz had three punctures, and with only two spares allowed to be carried, the race leader had to wait for his teammates Matias Ekstrom and Stephane Peterhansel to catch up and hand over their tyres.
Today’s 420km stage is very stoney, and punctures could well decide the outcome of Dakar 2024…
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