Loeb paid dearly for his mistake: “We lost what we gained yesterday”

Sebastian Loeb He is an eminence in the world of rallying after his countless WRC titles. However the rally in Dakar It was a feat that he did not accept despite his excellent performance. When it didn’t work out, last year he finished second despite winning seven stages, six in a row. This 2024 could be your year but to do it you have to go back 24 minutes on Carlos Sainz in the last four episodes.

In the seventh stage he managed to cut off the Spaniard by 10’31”, but in the eighth stage held this Monday he gave up almost six minutes after making a navigation error when he was three minutes faster than ‘ El Matador’. Despite the difficulty, the Frenchman did not turn his back on the race.

“We got lost at some point between 10 and 12 minutes. We made good progress, it was good, but we lost a lot in a WPC where we had to change the path to try to find it, we didn’t find it and we had to go back five kilometers to find the starting point. We have lost what we gained yesterday. It’s always difficult for cars in Dakar, so I’m working on things every day… hoping things will go well the next day,” he explained upon reaching the finish line.

Against the ropes

If Loeb wants to have any choice, he just has to attack from the start at every stage. In the ninth stage this Tuesday he starts late in the starting order and that may work to his advantage as he avoids a lot of navigation. In fact, this is how he achieved the 48-hour super marathon stage at the end of the first week of the rally.

With a distance of 417km timed, there is a high probability of taking important bites on the time table. The advantage for Sainz is that he has Audi by Ekström and Peterhansel in front of him while Loeb was left without the help of Al-Attiyah, who left due to mechanical failure and would start at the tail of the caravan.