Sainz slapped with time penalty for Dakar incident
Carlos Sainz has been hit with a 10-minute time penalty for an incident with a quad rider at the 2018 Dakar rally to see his overall lead cut to under an hour.
The Peugeot Sport driver is thought to have had a run-in with quad rider Kees Koolen on the La Paz – Uyuni stage seven which unmounted Koolen. The quad rider has accused Sainz of almost killing him in the clash and says Sainz’s buggy damaged his machine, while Sainz refutes these claims and says he narrowly avoided him.
Carlos Sainz has been hit with a 10-minute time penalty for an incident with a quad rider at the 2018 Dakar rally to see his overall lead cut to under an hour.
The Peugeot Sport driver is thought to have had a run-in with quad rider Kees Koolen on the La Paz – Uyuni stage seven which unmounted Koolen. The quad rider has accused Sainz of almost killing him in the clash and says Sainz’s buggy damaged his machine, while Sainz refutes these claims and says he narrowly avoided him.
Dakar rally organisers have weighed in on the incident by handing Sainz a 10-minute time penalty to cut the Spanish driver’s overall lead to 56m37s on Toyota Gazoo Racing’s Nasser Al-Attiyah, with former leader Stephane Peterhansel in third 1hr 03m42s behind Sainz.
Stage nine Tupiza – Salta was cancelled on Tuesday due to weather conditions with action set to restart on stage 10, Salta – Belen, which covers 424km in total with a 373km special stage.
The 2018 Dakar rally concludes this weekend with the 14th and final stage held at Cordoba in Argentina.
