Loeb's struggle: "To do 250 km in the dunes, at night, I have never done it"

They reached the bivouac in Ha'il (Saudi Arabia) while almost everyone was sleeping in the bivouac. The Wi-Fi in the press room had been cut for six hours, indicating Sébastien's late arrival Loeb and Daniel Elena (Bahrain Raid Xtreme)! “When we arrived, we didn’t hear a sound, it was really silent”, specifies the Monegasque co-pilot.

It must be admitted thatat three in the morning, one night before a day of rest, there were only the English mechanics from Prodrive there to welcome them! Their little comrades had completed the sixth stage 10 hours previously…

The star couple therefore took advantage of a long lie-in to recharge the energy necessary for the second week of the Dakar 2021. While his laundry was pinned under the awning of his camper van, Sébastien Loeb emerged early after -noon and was kind enough to come back to a new experience.

“I wasn’t planning on doing the night special! I think we had a good pace at the start of the special. It was a special stage where the navigation was less tricky, with fewer stones. So I went on the attack wanting to try something good.

At km 97, a rear triangle broke as we moved through a section of “whoops” (successions of mini-bumps. Editor’s note). We climbed a little higher than usual on a whoop, we hit the next bump a little hard and “boom”, the rear triangle broke in two”, remembers the Alsatian.

A lack of marking

This mechanical damage is not surprising given the youth of the BRX project. “The car was driven for the first time three months ago. We tried to use it in testing because we are “harder” in testing than in racing conditions. On the other hand, we know the track in practice, and you never hit it too hard because you know your terrain.

There, in the race, overall, you are a little more defensive because you don't have this knowledge. But from time to time you can take a bigger shock than the others. It's going to be like with the trans' (transmissions) which broke at the start of the tests. This has been fixed, so in the future the triangles will be a bit stronger.

7 hours later in the middle of nowhere Rest assured, everything is fine with us We are waiting to repair
We never give up, count on us to come back and win it this @dakar # Dakar2021 #BRX #Redbull #Sparco pic.twitter.com/dlrwklb2FO

— Daniel Elena (@DanosElena) January 8, 2021

It's a shame because overall the Hunter is reliable. We have reached the limit of one room, we will continue driving to check if others can “fart” too. »

However, the extremely long wait time to repair the breakage was much more surprising. In fact, the first assistance truck did not have the right part; we therefore had to wait for the said truck to go to the bivouac, take the missing element, and hit the road towards the damn km 97!

“It’s the kind of mistake that seems stupid, but the problem is that everything happened very quickly, continues the nine-time world rally champion (WRC). The manufacturing of spare parts was carried out at high speed at the end of last year, to send them to the assistance trucks for the Dakar.

We were supposed to have a right triangle and a left backup. Except that the marking of a part was incorrect. The part numbers we had in the truck were the correct ones, except there were two right triangles.

When we called our engineer, we told him: “We have (triangle) No. 2205 and No. 2206.” He replied: “No. 2205 is the left triangle. » Well no, it was a right triangle too! Knowing that we still had 250 terminals to go, the only solution was to have the right triangle.

The truck left for assistance because it had the right to do so. He just had to come back the same way. When he came back, it was 21:30 p.m. and we had been waiting for him for 8 hours. » The repair only took about twenty minutes.

An unprecedented wait

And Sébastien Loeb then recounts his long forced break, in the middle of the desert, without complaining about it. “ In our misfortune, the helicopter teams of TV3 and TV4. They kindly gave us rations, then brought out the tent, the coffee, the little soup in the evening. We ate with them, warm in the tent, we made a fire. »

We could have feared a feeling of exasperation within the 2nd duo of the 2017 Dakar, especially after the mini-affair of the 5' penalty and the murderous Tweet. But no! “We remained calm. We had to accept it, there was nothing we could do about it. As soon as we broke, we knew the rest of the race was a bit dead. »

The former rally driver even finds something positive in this struggle. “To do 250 km in the dunes at night, I had never done it. You feel alone, you're in the middle of nowhere, exhausted. It was nice.  What's just annoying is that you go after all the trucks that have plowed the track. We had to not mess up too much, otherwise we were really alone. »

What next for the Dakar?

“I think the goal will be to stay behind Nani (Roma, his teammate 5th overall, 1h36 behind Peterhansel. Editor's note), to help him just in case. Maybe do a time or two if the team wants it. I don't know, we'll see what the team asks. In itself, my racing is dead, so you have to gain experience and ride. »

The prospect of riding for six days starting from the back of the peloton hardly enchants him. " It does not interest me ! I don't like it, but hey... today we are in beautiful landscapes, maybe we will have more time to carry out our little raid with friends in the desert to admire the scenery? » asks our interlocutor, half amused, half ironic, but always honest in his stories during this difficult Dakar.