The Latest Breaking News from Carlos Sainz

Australian Daniel Sanders has come closest to denting Honda's latest demonstration of domination of the Dakar Rally bikes' class, finishing fourth on stage 10.

Loeb began the 371km Alula loop stage on the back foot as he briefly stopped at 53km, but fought back to gain five minutes on overall leader Sainz at the 225km checkpoint. 

Following up on his third stage win at this year’s event, Loeb looked set to carve more time out of Sainz’s overall advantage as he led the Spaniard by three minutes, and nearest rival Ekstrom by one minute, entering the final 100km of the Al Duwadimi to Ha’il stage.

Although yet to be officially announced, it is widely believed that Audi will pull the plug on its Dakar programme after the 46-edition of the rally-raid ends next week, having made its debut just three years ago in 2022 with RS Q e-tron.

In an unusual merry-go-round of beers, the Maranello team is in turn replacing the departed sponsor with Peroni, the top Italian non-alcoholic brand that was previously with Aston Martin for three seasons.

We 𝗛𝗜𝗧 a motorbike!💥 he came in the opposite direction… 🔃He’s okay and he made it to the finish of the stage. 🤞We’ve had a lot of problems the last 20 kn of the stage… 🎥 Video is coming soon, stay tuned for more. #DakarRally #DakarInSaudi #Dakar2024 #CoronelDakar pic.twitter.com/nyQTHkgwkW— Tim…

Dakar Rally veteran Stephane Peterhansel notched up a record-equalling 50th stage win on Sunday as Spanish rider Carles Falcon was reported in a "serious condition" after crashing in Saudi Arabia.

Excitement is building for the 2024 F1 season after McLaren became the first team to reveal its livery ahead of the Bahrain Grand Prix on 2 March.

Sainz finished second on day one of the Dakar Rally, falling 1m44s short of stage winner Guillaume de Mevius in Saudi Arabia.