Rallye du Maroc – Fabian Lurquin: “Glad to have lost: in general, the one who wins in Morocco does not win the Dakar!”

There is reason to be satisfied in the Dacia clan with the arrival of this Rally from Morocco. For its first participation in rally-raid with the Sandrider, the team achieved the double with the victory of Nasser Al-Attiyah and the second place of Sébastien Loeb. The Alsatian, accompanied by Fabian Lurquin in the right seat, finished 5'10 behind his teammate with two stage victories to his name, the last of which was contested this Friday. An almost perfect rally, only marred by an error during the Prologue and a broken steering arm during the first stage, which caused the Franco-Belgian duo to lose around ten minutes.

"I'm happy to have lost because in general, the one who wins the Rally of Morocco does not win the Dakar... and in view of the Dakar, it's perfect, Fabian Lurquin says ironically. The broken connecting rod in the first stage prevented us [from fighting for victory against Nasser Al-Attiyah]. There is only a five-minute gap [between the two], there has almost never been a Rally of Morocco where it has been decided by so little. The level of the cars and the crews is so homogeneous that it really comes down to details.

Rally-raid has become a Sprint, says Lurquin

"We will have to work to be the best possible in the details," emphasizes the Belgian co-pilot., who believes that competition is fiercer than ever in W2RC. We're going to keep working because we know that the others won't sit around doing nothing. But at the same time, it's nice not to rest on your laurels, to look for ways to improve personally and as a team. It's motivating."

"[I need] pmore precision, more regularity, see with the road-book if we can cut bigger things, he concludes, making his self-criticism. To be able to do all that without making a mistake is already great, but you have to try to work on details to be better than the others. It's a sprint... a long sprint, but still! Before it was rally-raid, now it's rally... in the desert! He has less than three months left to adjust his ropes with Sébastien Loeb to go and secure a first victory in the Dakar (January 3-17).

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