The Dakar 2025 of Laia Sanz, who was forced to abandon the race due to an accident during the first stage of the Saudi marathon, which caused a 2-millimeter deformation of one of the bars of the roll-cage of the Century #223, the car in which she was taking part in the car category, along with co-driver Maurizio Gerini, has come to an end after only two days.
An unfortunate epilogue, made all the more bitter by the fact that this retirement ended the 39-year-old Spanish woman's historic positive streak, who had so far completed 14 consecutive Dakars (11 in motorcycles and three in cars).
Laia faced bad luck from the start of the 413-km timed special that marked the first stage, having to slow her pace due to a breakdown. Then when everything seemed to be under control, a rock hidden in the sand caused her Century to roll over, forcing the Spaniard and her co-driver into a race against time to repair the car.
"It's a shame to start the Dakar this way. We lost third gear at km 20, but we were facing the day well, going slowly. Then, in the dust, all the navigation tools stopped working, so we decided to take it easy to finish the stage, and with 70 km to go, we hit a rock that we didn't see because of the dust and we flipped over," the driver recounted in a video posted on social media after the accident. "Now we are trying to repair the car, but we have to wait for the service truck. I am very sad, because we were doing very well, despite what happened to us today. It is very annoying to have had this bad luck when we were doing well and I thought it could have been a good year. Now we have to fight to finish and see if we can start tomorrow."
With grit and determination, the #223 crew managed to repair the car, restart, and make it through the last gate before the Bisha bivouac 2 minutes before the time limit to complete the special. But that was not enough to keep Laia's hopes of continuing her 15th Dakar alive, as the roll-cage deformation left the FIA officials with no alternative but to prevent the crew from continuing the competition. Since the regulations prevent changing or repairing a car's chassis during the race.
It was a tough blow for Sanz, who has not lost her tenacity, however, and aims to return even stronger to the Dakar in 2026.