Dakar Rally
After the breakup with Nasser Al-Attiyah, Mathieu Baumel breaks the silence: “We have to think about the future”
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Rally-Raid
Dakar 2023 – Sébastien Loeb: “I wanted to do a wise special”
Sébastien Loeb and his English racing car at the 2023 Dakar. © DPPI / Gigi Soldano
The first real stage of the Dakar 2023 was the first moment of truth for Sébastien Loeb and Fabian Lurquin (Bahrain Raid Xtreme). This Sunday, January 1, the flagship tandem of the British team launched its attempt to finally achieve final victory in this legendary event.
The nine-time world rally champion (WRC) and vice-world champion of rally-raid (W2RC) outgoing finished second, 23 seconds behind the leader, Carlos Sainz (Audi), at the end of a day where the concern was not to puncture.
Step 1: P2️⃣
General: P2️⃣A first real step in @dakar without incident 👌🏻 #BRX #DakarRally #BFGoodrich #Redbull #SFR #RichardMille #Vulcanet #Sparco #indianmotorcyclefrance pic.twitter.com/3yAICisTW5
- Sébastien Loeb (@SebastienLoeb) January 1, 2023
“The challenge was to ensure, so as not to find ourselves in a delicate position, he declares once he returns to the Sea Camp bivouac. I wanted to do a wise special, not start by doing anything. Our strategy was to avoid punctures as much as possible on the first part.
Three years ago, the Dakar had already been there and there were a lot of punctures. We implemented our plan. We didn't have a puncture and mid-stage we increased the pace to make up some time and overall it went well. »
The Alsatian is therefore not rushing into this start to Dakar. “Overall it was a good stage, with big stones at the start though, so we were careful not to suffer punctures. So I rode pretty cool at that point, then we increased the pace as we went along. We must have lost a minute in navigation, but not much, so it was a good stage for us. »
Here is our New Year's Eve program with Fabian: practice changing our tires @BFGoodrichTires in record time 💪🏻⏱️🥳
And you, what do you have planned ?! 😜 #BRX #DakarRally #BFGoodrich #Redbull #SFR #RichardMille #Vulcanet #Sparco #indianmotorcyclefrance pic.twitter.com/9UkY5gzcbo
- Sébastien Loeb (@SebastienLoeb) December 31, 2022
Sébastien Loeb is already looking ahead to the second stage of the 2023 Dakar, which will take him to AlUla after 430 km of special. " Tomorrow (Monday) we will be second on the road, it is not necessarily a very good position to attack, but we will do our best. »
Medhi Casaurang
Passionate about the history of motorsport across all disciplines, I learned to read thanks to AUTOhebdo. At least that's what my parents tell everyone when they see my name inside!
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