Guillaume de Mévius finished second on his debut in the Dakar rally. This makes him as good as the living legend Jacky Ickx. The overall victory in the Dakar rally went to Spaniard Carlos Sainz senior for the fourth time.
Guillaume de Mévius made a notable step forward in the final days of the Dakar. After the misfortune of factory drivers Moraes (Toyota Hilux) and Loeb (Hunter), he moved up to 2nd place on Thursday and maintained that position on Friday in the final stage in Yanbu, Saudi Arabia.
De Mévius can boast an excellent debut at the Dakar in the premier class. He was the first Belgian since Stéphane Henrard in 2003 to win a stage among cars. De Mévius also immediately followed in the footsteps of his father Grégoire, who won three stages in 2002.
With his 2nd place in the final standings, he equaled on his debut the living legend Jacky Ickx, who came second with the cars in both 1986 and 1989. In 1983 Ickx won the Dakar with a Mercedes. To date he is the only Belgian to win the Dakar among cars.
The overall victory went to Carlos Sainz senior for the fourth time. At 61, the Spaniard is the oldest winner in the history of the Dakar rally. Sainz drove an Audi this year. For the German car brand, this is the first overall victory in the Dakar rally since its debut in the desert in 2022.
This time Sainz’s victory was smooth, as he failed to win a single stage this year. “I am very happy to be able to write history with Audi,” Sainz said. “I’m still at the same level at my age and this doesn’t come naturally to me. I’m working hard for this. I will build on this victory in the coming weeks.”
De Mévius: “What a crazy ending!”
Guillaume de Mévius had to do everything in the final stage to secure second place. The stage victory went to the Frenchman Sébastien Loeb, who did everything to regain second place.
“It’s really exciting. What a crazy end to the Dakar,” De Mévius cheered. “Like I said all week, we would be ready if something happened early.”
“A lot happened on Thursday and we moved up to second place. Today we held on. Loeb wins the stage, we are second and we also finished second in the standings. It was exciting until the end, but we did it “Soon to succeed to get on the podium between Sainz and Loeb. Is fantastic!”
This was an extremely tough Dakar, with a lot of kilometres. We are second and very satisfied.
William of Mevio
De Mévius hugged his father Grégoire de Mévius and posed proudly with team manager Jean-Marc Fortin. “This was my debut at the highest level. We had already proven that we were fast with the T3 last year. Then we came third in our class. Now we are second overall. It’s crazy.”
“I also hope that this creates something for the future. Guerlain (Chicherit) and I have drawn up a program, but in reality there is nothing. I hope this performance helps us.”
“I would like to thank my co-driver Xavier for the good cooperation. Thanks to my Overdrive Racing team for their great work. We also determined the strategy together. This was an extremely tough Dakar, with many kilometres. We are second and very satisfied. “
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2024-01-19 11:40:09
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