Just a day ago, Sébastien Loeb asked for a bit of luck. He said that things out of his control, such as holes in the rocks, or mechanical problems with his car, affected him more than Sainz, as well as some important navigation errors that were at fault him and his co-driver. But in front of him is a very solid leader, a Carlos who has suffered very few setbacks throughout the Dakar and has made it clear that, due to pure speed, it will be very difficult to overcome the 20 minute margin that Sainz has about ‘ Seb ‘ before facing stage 10. And this Wednesday’s stage, fate will surely give him what he asked for.
Carlos Sainz lost 18 minutes at kilometer 248 when he suffered two punctures. He had to wait for Mattias Ekström to give him two spare tires to continue moving forward. There, Leob went all out, passing kilometer 260 with a 16-minute margin over the Spaniard, just 4 minutes behind Carlos in the virtual general classification. It seemed to be his lucky day, the day he asked to tie the scoreboard and face the final two days with the same options as Sainz. However, at kilometer 300 he lost time and his advantage over Sainz on stage 10 was reduced to 7 minutes. Loeb will face the final two days 13 minutes behind Sainz, frustrated by the problems he experienced on Wednesday which prevented him from taking the lead.
At the end of the stage, the 9-time world rally champion assured in front of the microphone of the Dakar organization that bad luck struck him again. According to Loeb, he lost about 15 minutes when he experienced two punctures and because the hydraulic jack malfunctioned.
He had to find a rock to climb over to leave the left rear tire in the air so he could change it. It was a disaster for her ideals when she reached Carlos.
“We can’t do 400 km without a puncture”
“It has been a nightmare. This morning, I had a link failure and then I punctured the left wheel twice. We had to find a place to stand high to change the rear wheel. We lost 15 minutes with the nonsense and “These are things that shouldn’t happen on their own. Of course, it was a bit disappointing, but hey, the stage was difficult and Carlos was a bit lost,” admitted Loeb at the end of the special, not yet knowing the distance that separated him. Sainz.
“We will see what the times say but it has been a nightmare. No cat or jack, and they’ve done it twice. It’s frustrating to waste time like this.. We couldn’t do 400 km without breaking down twice. It will be difficult”he continued, knowing that stage 11 will once again be complicated by the wheel of a Hunter where he suffers a lot in rocky areas.
The organization warned ahead of stage 11. “In this stage the greatest number of holes will be recorded,” Dakar said on its website when defining the route of stage 11. Not everything has been decided. Anything can happen and Loeb will not throw in the towel, but he knows it will be very difficult for him.
Source: La Verdad
I’m Rose Herman and I work as an author for Today Times Live. My expertise lies in writing about sports, a passion of mine that has been with me since childhood. As part of my job, I provide comprehensive coverage on everything from football to tennis to golf.
