Sébastien Loeb: "We still managed to put up a fight"

Dakar 2022 | Stage 12 | YANBU > YANBU
January 14 ^th 2022 - 15:18 [GMT + 3]

The French driver spent almost the entire rally playing catch up to Nasser Al-Attiyah, but he finished his sixth Dakar in second place, matching his result from 2017, when he bent the knee to Stéphane Peterhansel.

"I think we had a great rally. We ran into trouble at the beginning and, seeing the differences there were in the stages of the rally, we were unable to close the gap. We never stopped attacking, so we have no regrets. It's part of the game, this is a motorsport and we have to deal with it. The Dakar is nothing if not long, so it may seem cruel when you have a problem near the finish, but our situation was the opposite, we lost time at the beginning. When it happened, we thought to ourselves, 'it's all over', but we still managed to put up a fight despite the massive difference. We could only grab a few minutes here and there. Nasser has tonnes of experience and a co-driver who only makes mistakes once in a blue moon, so he controlled the race to perfection. I still had a blast, though, because every time we gained time on him, it felt great."