Dakar – Sébastien Loeb: “Nasser had a perfect rally”

Imperial throughout this Dakar, Nasser Al-Attiyah (Toyota) wins his fourth rally-raid on Saudi soil. And despite all his efforts, Sébastien Loeb (BRX) had to confine himself to the second step of the podium for the second time in his career (2nd in 2017, 3rd in 2019). Given the appearance of the fortnight, this silver medal does not have a bitter or even unfinished taste for the Frenchman.

“In the end, it was the best result we could have hoped for, he concedes. Once you lose time because of a technical problem and a navigation error, when you find yourself more than 50 minutes from the lead, it's difficult. We could only whip to regain some time. That's what we did. We had a great rally, we didn't lose any more time, we drove hard all the time, with good navigation. »

“We scrounged a few minutes here and there, but it’s a rally where there were never any big gaps. The teams are all quite close to each other, the crews have level, it was close. There are more cars fighting in front than at one time so obviously making up time is difficult. »

The nine-time world champion WRC could only pay tribute to his opponent at the finish.

“In the end, Nasser [Al-Attiyah] had a perfect rally, so I think we couldn't have done more. We have nothing to reproach ourselves for. Nasser had a head start from the start, because of our worries. And from there, he is a driver with a lot of experience, who is capable of driving very fast without taking any big risks while taking care of his mechanics, of doing good navigation and not making any mistakes. He had a perfect rally until the end. »

# Dakar2022 ✔️
P2 🥈

No regrets, we gave everything! We just have to congratulate @AlAttiyahN et @matthieubaumel 👏🏼

Thank you all for your messages during these 2 weeks 🙌🏻 #BRX #Prodrive #Redbull #BFGoodrich pic.twitter.com/3rJJ7f1lHp

- Sébastien Loeb (@SebastienLoeb) January 14, 2022