Tag Archives: Audi

Carlos Sainz Sr. Extends Record as Oldest Winner of Dakar Rally with Fourth Victory

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Carlos Sainz Sr. is still winning…

The 61-year-old Spanish rally driver has extended his record as the oldest winner of the Dakar Rally with his fourth victory in the car category and the first for Audi.

Carlos Sainz Sr., His son, Ferrari Formula One driver Carlos Sainz Jr., was there on Friday to embrace his beaming “Matador” father as the two-week motorsport marathon reached the finish in Yanbu on Saudi Arabia‘s Red Sea coast.

Sainz Sr. finished 1 hour, 20 minutes, 25 seconds ahead of Belgian debutant Guillaume de Mevius for Overdrive Toyota with France’s Sebastien Loeb, a nine-time world rally champion, third overall.

Loeb had been Sainz Sr.’s biggest rival until mechanical problems on Thursday, but he wrapped up with a fifth stage win in his Bahrain Raid Xtreme team’s Prodrive Hunter.

Audi, now expected to focus on its Formula One entry in 2026, is the first to win with a car powered by an electric drive train. The Audi RS Q e-tron uses an energy converter, featuring a 2.0-liter, four-cylinder turbo engine, to charge the car’s high-voltage battery while driving.

“This car is so special. It’s so difficult to manage. It has been so difficult to make it work. … I’m so happy for Audi,” said Sainz Sr., who held the lead from Stage 6 after Saudi driver Yazeed Al-Rajhi crashed out. “To be here with my age and to stay at the level, you need to work a lot before. It’s not coming just like that. It shows that when you work hard, normally it pays off.”

Sainz Sr., who withdrew from last year’s event after fracturing his T5 and T6 vertebrae in a crash, has now won the Dakar with four different manufacturers, along claiming titles with Volkswagen in 2010, Peugeot in 2018 and Mini in 2020.

He and co-driver Lucas Cruz did it this time without winning any individual stage but with the assistance of teammates Stephane Peterhansel and Mattias Ekstrom, who helped with spare tires after going out of contention themselves.

Defending champion Nasser Al-Attiyah failed to finish in his Prodrive Hunter.

The victory pulled Sainz Sr. level with Finnish great Ari Vatanen in the all-time rankings, with only Al-Attiyah (five) and Peterhansel (eight) winning more.

American Honda rider Ricky Brabec won the motorcycling category for the second time while Spaniard Cristina Gutierrez triumphed in the lightweight Challenger class to become only the second woman to take a title after Germany’s Jutta Kleinschmidt in 2001.

Argentina’s Manuel Andujar won the quad category, Czech driver Martin Macik took the truck title in his Iveco, and France’s Xavier de Soultrait was the SSV (side-by-side) champion.

The rally began in 1978 as a race from Paris across the Sahara to the Senegalese capital but switched to South America in 2009 for security reasons.

One of the greatest challenges in motorsport, with competitors battling towering desert dunes and inhospitable terrain, it moved to Saudi Arabia in 2020 and is now the flagship of the FIA world rally-raid championship.

Daniella Pineda to Star in Amazon Freevee’s Half-Hour Period Comedy Pilot “Western”

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Daniella Pineda is heading west(ern)…

The 35-year-old Mexican American actress will star in Amazon Freevee’s Western, a half-hour period comedy pilot from Sony Pictures Television, Amazon Studios and Lord Miller.

Daniella PinedaPineda will star opposite Guy Burnet, Luca Diaz and Anna Konkle in the project.

Written by Michelle Morgan, Western is set in the 1800s. It follows Polly (Konkle), a young high-society woman from Philadelphia who travels out west on a desperate quest for a husband only to discover that she has been catfished by a teenage boy (Diaz). Now stranded in 1866 Montana, Polly, along with the town’s other inhabitants, must find their place in this ever-changing new world, confronting and defying all expectations society has of them along the way.

Pineda is Bess. The sexy, tough as nails, quick as a whip proprietress of Sumner’s most popular saloon; a woman who isn’t intimidated by the male dominated wild west landscape but with a heart of gold hidden not too far below the surface.

Diaz portrays Henry Johnson.  A 14 going on 45, a wiley, wild-haired pre-teen with a penchant for writing letters to unsuspecting women and an unexpected amount of depth coursing through his pubescent veins.

Tony Yacenda serves as executive producer and directs.

Pineda most recently starred in Jurassic World: Dominion reprising her role as Zia Rodriguez from Fallen Kingdom.

She’ll next be seen in the comedy feature In Town, which she also executive produced, and starring opposite Gerard Butler and Mike Colter in The Plane, for Lionsgate and Di Bonaventura Pictures.

On television, she recently starred in the Netflix series Cowboy Bebop.

Diaz, who has been acting since the age of 6, can be heard in the voice cast of the upcoming Black Adam film and in Transformers: Earth Spark for Nickelodeon.

He also has appeared in commercials for Sam’s Club, Audi and Subaru.

Diego Rossi Wins MLS is Back Tournament’s Golden Boot Award

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It’s Diego Rossi’s golden moment…

The 22-year-old Uruguayan professional footballer and Los Angeles FC forward has won the MLS is Back Tournament’s Golden Boot award.

Diego Rossi

Rossi scored seven goals in five tournament matches to earn the trophy.

The highlight of Rossi’s tournament performance came on Saturday, July 18 in LAFC’s 6-2 victory over El Tráfico rival LA Galaxy when he scored four times, becoming the 13th player in MLS history to achieve the feat.

Rossi’s five combined goals and assists in that match tied the all-time league record, becoming the first player to accomplish this twice in his MLS career.

He also scored a goal in LAFC’s opening 3-3 draw against the Houston Dynamo on July 13 and scored a brace in the club’s 4-1 victory over Seattle Sounders FC on July 27 in the knockout round.

By winning the Golden Boot, Rossi has earned $10,000 for the LAFC Academy through the ‘Audi Goals Drive Progress’ program, a multi-year initiative launched by Audi and dedicated to expanding the breadth of academy resources through contributions toward player education, housing and transportation.

Of Rossi’s seven goals, five came in the tournament’s group stage and count toward the regular season. The Uruguayan leads the league in the race for the 2020 MLS Golden Boot with six regular season goals entering return to play in home markets.