Cristina Gutierrez becomes second female winner in Dakar Rally

Cristina Gutierrez Herrero has made history by taking victory in the Challenger class of the Dakar Rally. This happened after Mitchell Guthrie, the initial leader, lost time early in the race due to problems. With her final victory, Gutierrez became the second female driver to win the famous rally, after Jutta Kleinschmidt in 2001.

Guthrie had a considerable lead over Gutierrez before the final stage. However, he soon encountered technical problems, stopping for 25 minutes. Although he largely maintained his lead, he later had to stop again due to gearbox problems, which cost him another 25 minutes and dashed his chances of victory.

Gutierrez finished the stage third behind Marcelo Gastaldi and Saleh Alsaif, which was enough to win the overall classification. It is not her first success in the Dakar Rally: she already won a stage in 2021, also as the second woman after Kleinschmidt. She also took a stage victory in 2023 and won the prologue in the Lightweight category. In this Dakar edition, she added another stage win to her record, bringing her total to four.

Gutierrez, who is a dentist as well as a driver, also competes on behalf of a racing team owned by none other than Lewis Hamilton. She drives for Team X44, a racing team that competes in the Extreme E electric cross-country racing class. In 2022, she won the Extreme E championship on behalf of the Mercedes driver's team, along with Sébastien Loeb.