Dakar 2023 – Stéphane Peterhansel: “I have no memory” of the accident

Stéphane Peterhansel (Audi) tried to remember the circumstances in which he abandoned his hopes of winning the Dakar Rally 2023 this Friday, January 6 between Ha'il and Riyadh (Saudi Arabia).

ALSO READ > Dakar 2023, Stage 6: Terrible day for Audi, Al-Attiyah the strongest

“Monsieur Dakar”, eight-time winner of the rally-raid in the Auto category, was questioned by the official TV service of the Dakar before he was taken to hospital to have a scan. This did not reveal any lesions concerning Stéphane Peterhansel. On the other hand, his co-driver Édouard Boulanger suffers from compression of a vertebra and will spend the night from Friday to Saturday in a hospital in Riyadh.

“I have no memory of jumping the dune, I have no memory of turning off the light,” confides Stéphane Peterhansel. “And when I woke up, Édouard was no longer in the car but lying in front. »

🎙️The interviews of the day presented by @aramco
after Stage 6⃣ produced different fortunes for Stéphane Peterhansel, Guillaume De Mevius and Mitchel Van Den Brink
# Dakar2023 pic.twitter.com/fKankTL3qQ

- DAKAR RALLY (@dakar) January 6, 2023

The accident, where the Audi RS Q e-tron hybrid landed poorly at the bottom of a dune, occurred in a fast zone. “It's off-piste, it's probably 'Danger 2' (note used in the roadbook. Editor’s note) everywhere, it's all in sight, and we got trapped.

We were at a high pace since we caught up with Carlos (Sainz) in the dunes. We didn't feel that bad and we were trying to get some time back on Nasser. (Al-Attiyah), but hey… too quickly…” Stéphane Peterhansel was indeed trying to make up for his delay of around twenty minutes on the leader of the Qatari event and gave up in a scenario very similar to his exit in 2019, in Peru.

ALSO READ > Dakar 2023 – Stéphane Peterhansel, an abandonment with a taste of déjà vu