Sébastien Loeb: “We thought that it was completely finished”

Dakar 2024 | Stage 11 | ALULA > YANBU
January 18 ^th 2024 - 17:59 [GMT + 3]

There was a big blow for Sébatien Loeb, who yesterday was back on the heels of Carlos Sainz. By unfortunately finishing 51st, 1 hour 23 minutes behind the Spaniard, who finished third on the penultimate stage, the Frenchman has lost any chance of winning his first Dakar. Second place remains within his grasp, however, as he is only 9 minutes behind Guillaume de Mevius.

“It was a difficult stage for us, for sure. We lost more than one hour sitting on a rock at the beginning of the stage. We thought that it was completely finished. Finally, we were a bit lucky that the Chinese driver with a Hunter had the spare parts that we needed, so we took it, we repaired, we started again. But then we had some punctures. Even driving slowly, we got a lot of punctures. It was really hard for the tyres today. We reached the end with three flat tyres on the car, but we are here at the finish”.