Dakar 2023, Sébastien Loeb: “At this rate we have six months to get back to Nasser”

Le Dakar Rally 2023 is not a clear story for Sébastien Loeb and Fabian Lurquin (Bahrain Raid Xtreme). The Franco-Belgian duo recorded their third stage victory in this event this Tuesday, January 10, between Riyadh and Haradh (Saudi Arabia). But Loeb and Lurquin could very well have not taken part in this ninth stage!

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“We stopped at a connecting station before the start of the special and when we left the car did not want to start”, revealed Loeb after collecting his 19th stage victory on the Dakar, one more than the 2009 winner, Giniel de Villiers.

"There was no fuel pressure, we checked all the connectors, called the engineer and I'm not sure, but a connector was moving behind the fuel pump and maybe it happened when the FIA has taken its samples.

We checked everything, we did resets and finally she left. We arrived ten minutes late at departure. »

Sébastien Loeb collected a penalty of 2'10'' for clocking in 13 minutes late at the start of the special. Fortunately for him, his high-flying attack allowed him to finish with a margin of 3'07'' over Vaidotas Zala (BRX), before deduction of the penalty.

“Overall it was a rolling special where it was difficult to make gaps, however there were two or three places where the courses traced by the motorcycles to find way-points were not very good,” continues the Alsatian.

Sébastien Loeb took a handful of minutes off the leaders of the Dakar 2023, Nasser Al-Attiyah and Mathieu Baumel (Toyota), but his delay is still more than 1 hour 40 minutes. “At this rate we have six months to come back to Nasser.

It's a good day, I'm happy to be at the end. We had a scare this morning and we said to ourselves that it was going to start again like at the start of the week. But in the end we will take a few minutes of penalties, it is not catastrophic. »