Cristina Gutierrez on how Sébastien Loeb helped her become the second woman to win the Dakar
When he was barely four years old, his father gave him a motorcycle. Love was born automatically between Cristina Gutierrez and the locomotives.. At the age of nine he started karting, and at 16 he took a Formula BMW course with Maria de Villota. At the age of 18, he decided to take part in off-road competitions and never stopped.
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Dentist by profession Gutierrez, born in Burgos on July 24, 1991, finished second in the Spanish off-road rally tournament in 2015.. The arrival of a sponsor and the support of Mitsubishi Spain allowed him to realize a dream that seemed unattainable: to run the Dakar in 2017, which took place in Paraguay, Argentina and Bolivia. In this edition, she became the first Spaniard to complete the course of the most difficult race in the world. His career was on the rise until the pandemic hit. In September 2020, Mitsubishi announced it was closing its sports program, leaving Gutierrez without the opportunity to race. But a guardian angel appeared: Sebastien Loeb.
A month after announcing the opening of the Spanish subsidiary of the Japanese company, Gutiérrez showed outstanding results in Lower Andalusia. While at competitions, received a message on Facebook from the manager of the X44 Extreme E team owned by Lewis Hamilton. The pilot from Castile and Leon, without a moment’s hesitation, signed a contract to become a member of the team of the seven-time Formula 1 world champion. The category is clear in the rules: the driver must be a man and a woman. When Gutierrez learned that Loeb would be his partner, he was shocked.
During Extreme E testing on the X44, the nine-time WRC champion asked the Spaniard what her plans were for the 2021 Dakar.. The dentist, without blushing, admitted that she would not undertake this due to lack of budget. Loeb, without announcing anything, spoke to Red Bull (the company that sponsors him) and directly asked to be included in the support program. for off-road competitions. The energy drink company accepted the request and the Spanish company was able to conduct a raid in 2021.
With the support of the House of Austria, Gutierrez continued to compete and reached the peak of his career at the 2024 Dakar. winning the Challenger class for cars and becoming the second woman to win the competition since Germany’s Jutta Kleinschmidt achieved it in 2001 in a Mitsubishi.
Gutierrez’s success was made possible by the problems that arose with Mitchell Guthrie at the last stage.. The American started the day with an encouraging lead of 25 minutes 07 seconds over the Spaniard. The race was over, as long as something didn’t happen… And it did. Due to problems with the turbocharging of his Taurus, he stopped for more than 20 minutes at the seventh kilometer. At one point in the race, Gutiérrez’s teammate continued to give way as he suffered a gearbox problem, and the Spaniard moved forward in the general classification to succeed.
“I’m very happy, I have to thank my whole team, my family, Red Bull, “This is a dream come true,” Gutierrez said after learning that she had won the 46th edition of the Dakar.
By 2025, the Spaniard will make the jump to the top class, the main class of cars in Dakar. He will be part of the Dacia team with two important comrades: Nasser Al-Attiyah and Loeb.the one that became key to a transcendental moment in his career.