The 2024 Dakar Prologue was full of surprises, with Audi taking victory with Mattias Ekstrom, while other favorites fell behind. This was the case for Nasser Al-Attiyah and the rest of the German cars, with Stephane Peterhansel placing seventh and Carlos Sainz finishing outside the top 30.
For his part, Sebastien Loeb took the podium in third place, behind Seth Quintero, and after getting out of his Prodrive, the best of the British team, he declared that it was not an easy Prologue: “It went well, no problems in the stage, a very clean special, pushing hard to get a good position. In the end, we have a lot of fast riders above tenth, so we'll see.”
“I had a good Prologue and a good stage,” explained the WRC legend, who also indicated that some of the problems could be due to navigation, despite the invaluable help of the tracks left by the bikes.
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#203 Bahrain Raid Xtreme Prodrive Hunter: Sebastien Loeb, Fabian Lurquin
The first timed section of just 27 km ended with unexpected results, but the Frenchman remains confident: “It wasn't easy, the navigation was complicated, but we took advantage of the help of the motorbikes, which had started before us. It's It was a good start.”
When asked if he was nervous before the start of his eighth Dakar, the Frenchman replied: “A little, I'm always a little nervous every morning, but when you get in the car it's all over.”
Tomorrow he will have a first special stage of 405 kilometers ahead of him to get off to a good start to one of the few races of his career that he has not yet won, even though the Frenchman is one of those who has won the most stages in the history of the Dakar. Sebastien Loeb is tenth with 19, but who knows if, like last year, he will be able to break another record of consecutive victories to continue climbing the rankings.
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