the favorites purposely wasted time

Sébastien Loeb and most of the candidates for final victory did everything not to win the 1st stage on Saturday. The Frenchman even “hid behind a big rock”. Explanations.

“A fool’s game.” This is how Agence France Presse (AFP) summarized the first stage of the Dakar, contested on Saturday over 413 km, and won by Seth Quintero (22 years old) on a Toyota. Because this special in Saudi Arabia saw the favorites finish far behind in a surprising way: Nasser al-Attiyah finished 19th and Sébastien Loeb 24th, 12 minutes behind the winner! The Frenchman even explained that he “hid behind a large rock to let a few cars pass”.

In fact, the big names in the discipline deliberately wasted time. The reason is simple: if they had finished ahead of the others, they would have had to open the road during the 48-hour stage contested over two days (Sunday and Monday), a terrible special of almost 1000 km without assistance. However, in these conditions, keeping track for your opponents could be a serious disadvantage.

Nasser al-Attiyah rode hard from the start last year, and he was disappointed.

The five-time Dakar winner was therefore careful not to press the accelerator too much. Al-Attiyah and Loeb even deliberately got flashed in an area where the speed limit was limited for safety reasonsso as to receive two minutes of additional penalties!

This race to slowness was also favored by a technical incident. As reported The Teamthe Sentinel system, which allows crews to warn competitors they are about to overtake of their presence, failed on Saturday. The breakdown has since been repaired but during the race, it further dampened the enthusiasm of drivers who were already unmotivated by the idea of ​​finishing in the lead.

Sébastien Loeb and most of the candidates for final victory did everything not to win the 1st stage on Saturday. The Frenchman even “hid behind a big rock”. Explanations.

“A fool’s game.” This is how Agence France Presse (AFP) summarized the first stage of the Dakar, contested on Saturday over 413 km, and won by Seth Quintero (22 years old) on Toyota. Because this special in Saudi Arabia saw the favorites finish far behind in a surprising way: Nasser al-Attiyah finished 19th and Sébastien Loeb 24th, 12 minutes behind the winner! The Frenchman even explained that he “hid behind a large rock to let a few cars pass”.