The nightmare continues
Five Stage successes out of 12 total stageswhich bring the total count of Sebastian Loeb at the Dakar at 28. The Frenchman is the sixth most successful driver in the history of the legendary rally-raid, but has never conquered the general classification. A curse that hasn't been broken not even this year, despite having achieved almost half of the partial successes available. Carlos Sainz, with Audi, didn't win a single Stage. In the end, however, he was the one who celebrated.
Loeb also won the final stage, thus defending third position in the overall classification from possible attacks. The fifth overall podium at the Dakar – in eight participations – was obviously not the main objective of the nine-time WRC champion. At the end of the stage, the 49-year-old Alsatian spoke to the microphones of his team, the BRX, taking stock of this 2024 edition, which ended once again with the bitter taste of failure to win.
Consistency counts
“Today we had to push because we knew that Chicherit wasn't that far behind – commented Loeb – we had to secure the podium. We started quite far back, so we had to deal with some dust and several cars to overtake. But we were lucky, we didn't have any punctures and we didn't waste that much time overtaking other cars. We set the best time on the last stage and there were no problems. Everything was perfect today”.
“The Dakar is difficult – continued the representative of the Bahrain team, commenting on the ups and downs experienced this year – it's not like winning a normal rally. It's 15 days where you have to put everything together. If you look at Carlos he didn't win any stages but he won the rally, because he was consistent. She did a great job every day. We won many stages, but we had too many problems. Not only with the car, but also with punctures and everything else. In the end he won. We have to be able to put everything together“:
#Loeb #stage #victories #Sainz #consistent
