Sébastien Loeb: “At one point I really didn’t think we were going to make it”

Dakar 2026 | Stage 3 | ALULA > ALULA
January 6 ^th 2026 - 15:27 [GMT + 3]

Without a spare wheel after 100 kilometres, Sébastien Loeb had to content himself with just getting his Dacia to the finishing line. It was a relief after a frustrating day for the Frenchman, who finished 25'25’’ behind Mitch Guthrie. In the general rankings, Loeb trails by 16'50’’.

“It’s just not adapted to our cars. We’re driving at about 20% of our capacity just to avoid punctures and we still get them. I had two punctures after 100 km whereas yesterday I had none. Today I started with the same mindset, being careful about everything. You don’t see the punctures coming and with two flat tyres and 300 km to go, I had no spare wheels left so we drove the rest of the stage at crawling pace. Nasser also lost time, a bit less than me, and you can see cars arriving at the finish with flat tyres. It was really tough. I’m just happy to be at the finish because at one point I really didn’t think we were going to make it”.