Sébastien Loeb just can't give up. The driver of the Bahrain Raid Xtreme team, at the wheel of his Hunter Prodrive number 203, signed yet another stage victory at the 2024 Dakar, keeping his hopes of success more than alive.
Loeb, who has been chasing the overall victory in the Car class for 8 years now, remained the only driver capable of fighting with Carlos Sainz, an excellent second today and good at managing his advantage over his Alsatian rival without taking unnecessary risks that could have compromised a perfect match on his part so far.
Loeb triumphed in Stage 9 which took him from Ha'il to Alula after 417 timed kilometres, ahead of Carlos Sainz by 4 minutes and 14 seconds. Not a heavy gap, but enough to reduce the gap between the two in the general classification, bringing it to 20 minutes and 33 seconds in favor of the Audi Sport driver.
Behind the two contenders for the final victory of this 46th edition of the most famous rally raid in the world, we find the great performance of the day, the one made by the Frenchman Mathieu Serradori. The driver of the Century Racing Factory team, at the wheel of the first CR7-T, achieved his first Top 3 finish in this Dakar, just 29 seconds behind the time achieved by Carlos Sainz.
Serradori, navigated by Loic Minaudier, made a very decisive step forward in the general classification, climbing to sixth place behind the official Toyota GR Hilux T1U of Giniel De Villiers. Guillaume De Mevius continues his high-level race thanks to the fourth place in the stage achieved today. The Belgian is the first private individual in the standings with the GR Hilux managed by the Overdrive Racing team.
Guy David Botterill closes the Top 5 of the stage with the first official GR Hilux T1U of the Toyota Gazoo Racing team, just 20 seconds slower than De Mevius. No exploits for the Audi RS Q e-trons now out of the fight for a good position in the standings. Stéphane Peterhansel and Mattias Ekstroem – after yesterday's one-two – today had to settle for seventh and ninth place in the stage respectively.
Between the two cars from Ingolstadt here is the official Toyota GR Hilux T1U of Lucas Moraes. The Brazilian is still third in the general classification, but continues to lose precious minutes and is now focused on bringing home what would be the second podium of his career at the Dakar in just 2 appearances. Romain Dumas (Rebellion Racing) closes the Top 10.
Nasser Al-Attiyah's adventure at the 2024 Dakar comes to a definitive end. Today the Prodrive Qatari was forced into his second retirement after returning to the race with the aim of bringing home points for the W2RC World Championship. Today the winner of the last 2 editions of the Dakar stopped on stage and turned back due to a problem on his Hunter after the engine problem that stopped him yesterday.
As for the general classification, Carlos Sainz leads with just over 20 minutes ahead of Sébastien Loeb with 3 stages remaining (two of which are very long and treacherous) until the end of hostilities. The fight for success is limited to former WRC drivers and champions, while Lucas Moraes (Toyota Gazoo Racing) is third with a delay of more than an hour from the leaders.
27 minutes further back is the surprising Guillaume De Mevius, private driver of the Overdrive Racing team, ahead of the Toyota factory Giniel De Villiers, who completes the Top 5. Mathieu Serradori (Century Racing Factory Team) moved up to sixth place ahead of Guerlain Chicherit (Overdrive Racing) and Martin Prokop (Orlen Jipocar Team). Guy David Botterill and Benediktas Vanagas close the Top 10 in ninth and tenth position respectively with Toyotas.
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