SPANIARD Carlos Sainz was left to reflect on a day of misfortune after his hopes of a first Dakar Rally victory were ended by a freak accident.
The two-time world rally champion, who was leading after six stage victories, was eliminated from the race 79 kilometres in to the stage when his car crashed into a dry riverbed.
His co-driver, Frenchman Michel Perin, suffered a shoulder injury a
nd both had to be evacuated to the Fiambala bivouac for medical attention.
Sainz said: "I am disappointed to pull out. I am happy because, after the accident, my co-driver and I can talk about it. I had the race in my pocket, we had a big advantage and we were not speeding when we crashed."
The 46-year-old felt there should have been more warning signs for the river bed.
"Something wrong was in that place," he continued. "It was not very well signposted. We were going to a way-point, maybe a little to the right of the road, but we had located the way-point. Suddenly, a very narrow dry river appeared and we fell four metres down."
He added: "You do not win the Dakar until it ends. This was something else for my career. If this accident did not occur I am sure that we were going to win the stage."
Perin added: "We had made a small mistake in the first part. We took the wrong direction at a Y crossing but it was not too bad because we did end up on the right trail. We were tailing (new leader] Giniel De Villiers, who had started about 10 minutes after us, so it was still sort of okay. Then there was a hidden way-point with a wadi indicated as 'danger'. But it should have been indicated as 'extremely dangerous'. The car behind us, Nani Roma's car, would have fallen in the same hole as we did if we had not been there already. I'm okay, I just have something broken in my arm, but I'm all right."
