Dakar 2024: Victory for Audi, Swiss in 2nd place 🎥

Lausanne-born Jérôme de Sadeleer finished the Dakar Rally in a sensational second place in the buggy class. The Gstaad resident from western Switzerland won the penultimate stage, finishing just 1:55 minutes behind the winner from France, Xavier de Soultrait, who drives for Sébastien Loeb's team, after more than 56 ½ hours of counted driving time.

Bad luck with a defective drive shaft

De Sadeeler had even taken the lead in the SSV class after the fifth stage, but lost it again due to a defective drive shaft. Together with co-driver Michael Metge, de Sadeeler then worked his way back up from fifth to second place. He told colleagues from sport-auto.ch at the halfway point that anything was still possible and that he would like to win one more stage. He succeeded in doing so on the penultimate day.

Carlos Sainz showed the master

Victory in the overall classification went to Carlos Sainz sr for the fourth time. The Spaniard thus gave Audi its first triumph at the Dakar. Second place went to the Belgian Guillaume de Mevius (Overdrive-Toyota, gallery right). Third place went to Sébastien Loeb (Prodrive, gallery left). For the Rebellion duo Alexandre Pesci and co-driver Stephan Kühni, the Dakar ended in 63rd place, while Cédric Goumaz finished 74th on his debut.

Success for alternative drives

Audi made history with the first victory for an electric drive with a high-voltage battery and energy converter. The two other driver teams from the Four Rings also recorded individual successes. Stéphane Peterhansel and his Swiss co-driver Edouard Boulanger achieved a stage victory, while Mattias Ekström/Emil Bergkvist won two stage classifications including the prologue.

Edouard Boulanger: "We all won as a team. That's the feeling we return home with from this rally. Everyone has contributed to this great result."

Photos: Archive de Sadelee, Red Bull, Toyota
Source: Car Sport Switzerland
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