The penultimate stage of the 2024 Dakar tipped the scales in favor of Carlos Sainz, who one day later won his fourth Touareg trophy in front of his entire family, thus giving the toughest race in the world to Audi. The big loser, however, was Sebastien Loeb who, despite his efforts, once again had mechanical problems.
The broken front suspension triangle destroyed his chances of winning for the first time in the desert, although he managed to finish the race with another podium, which was perhaps too little for him seeing how the two weeks had gone in Saudi Arabia. After getting out of the car, knowing that he wouldn't be able to beat even Guillaume de Mevius for second place, he said it was still a “good feeling”, even if there was no longer an opportunity to win.
“It's a great feeling to be on the podium, because after fifteen days we wanted to fight for the victory, but we missed opportunities here and there, because the Dakar gave us what the Dakar always gives us, surprises,” explained the Frenchman. after achieving his fifth podium placing in the overall car classification at the Dakar.
The Frenchman wanted to take the positive side of all those setbacks which, if it hadn't been for the help of one of the Chinese cars, also from Prodrive, would have forced him to definitively surrender: “Yesterday we thought about returning to home, but then we rejoined the race and fought for the podium again. Honestly, we couldn't compete with the Audis, who were very strong and had three cars still competing at the end of the rally.”
“So we have no regrets. We did our best, we lost a position yesterday, but in the end it's nice to be at the finish line,” said Sebastien Loeb, who now turns his attention to the World Rally-Raid Championship.
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