Rally of Morocco – Sébastien Loeb recounts his crash: “Bang, I fell into a crevasse”

It must have been “his” stage of Rally from Morocco. Where his Hunter T1+ was going to take the scalp of the Toyota Hilux T1+ of leaders Nasser Al-Attiyah and Mathieu Baumel (Toyota), slowed down by a mechanical problem on this penultimate special.

Moreover, Sébastien's objective Loeb and Fabian Lurquin (Bahrain Raid WRC had returned to the virtual lead of the event for a few seconds.

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But the story had to stutter. As at the Sonora Rally at the end of April, the Franco-Belgian crew fell into a hole. There is no metaphor in this, it is the simple, sad truth.

“About the same thing happened as in Mexico (at the Sonora Rally), recounted Sébastien Loeb upon returning to the bivouac. We were the first car on the track. All motorcycles (passed before him. Editor’s note) took the same trace, which I followed. It was about ten meters from the ideal track for cars, which no one had taken.

There was a small hole, which the motorbikes jumped through. But I didn't see it. I wasn't going that fast though, I was in second gear, I was looking for the right path. And ''bang'', I fell into this crevasse. My front suspension broke, and that was it. We couldn't finish the special. »

An error of judgment which costs Sébastien Loeb third place in the championship W2RC 2023, but also any hope of Moroccan victory. He did not finish the stage and will start again on Wednesday with a heavy time penalty. Fortunately, he and his navigator Fabian Lurquin were unhurt.

“It’s frustrating because we had achieved some very good stages until now, He continues. This morning we caught up with Nasser (Al-Attiyah) very early on the course. We overtook him, then we got back to Mattias (Ekstrom), who made a small navigation error. That’s how we ended up opening the special. We were simply doing our job, without suffering a puncture or making any navigation errors. »

Unfortunately, Sébastien Loeb and Fabian Lurquin were injured just 500 meters from the neutralization zone. “There we would have known that Nasser was losing a lot of time and that we were leading the Rally. But that's how it is, we didn't know about it.

We'll see how the car performs tomorrow, but the plan is to go back and finish the event. » A Rally of Morocco which continues to refuse him, even though he made his rally-raid debut there in 2015 with Peugeot .