Sainz staved off a fierce challenge from Prodrive’s Sebastien Loeb to claim top honours in the 46th edition of Dakar Rally, beating Overdrive’s Guillaume de Mevius by 1h20m as Loeb slipped to third in the final classification.
The result marked the Spaniard’s fourth triumph in the world’s most prestigious rally-raid after previous successes with Volkswagen, Peugeot and Mini, and puts him third behind Stephane Peterhansel and Nasser Al-Attiyah in the list of drivers with most wins.
More impressively, Sainz managed to accomplish this feat in his early 60s, beating his own record from 2020 when he won Dakar on its first visit to Saudi Arabia at the age of 58.
The significance of the result was not lost on Sven Quandt, the manager of Audi’s Dakar partner Q Motorsport, who heaped praise on Sainz for belying his age and winning one of the world’s toughest motorsport events across all disciplines.
"When he arrived at the bivouac he was very positive, and that infected the whole team," he said.
"Of course he's old, but he's still at the top of his game.
"That this guy is incredible at his age and that if he feels like it he can still achieve many more victories on the Dakar.
"We've known each other for a long time and mutual trust is another key to this success."
Source: Autosport