Accident-injured French driver Sébastien Loeb struggled to complete the 3rd stage of the Dakar rally on Tuesday, completed one hour behind the winner. A setback which should cost him his dream of a rally-raid coronation this year.
At km 12 of the 327 of the day’s special between Bisha and Al Henakiyah, the Dacia of the 50-year-old Alsatian crossed the road after a bad bounce and made several impressive rollovers, which seriously damaged the vehicle.
The Frenchman and his Belgian co-driver Fabian Lurquin restarted after a five-minute stop and repairs, but the consequences of the accident were felt for the rest of the race. “We were able to continue but suddenly the steering link broke, I think because of the rollover. […] Then we had a problem with the engine overheating. We tried to finish the stage. We got there but in the end we lost an hour,” he regretted at the finish of the special.
Sébastien Loeb finished the course in 4h20’12”, more than an hour after the winner of the day, the young South African Saood Variawa.
This accident occurs the day after the retirement of the title holder, Carlos Sainz, who had to give up due to the damage to his roll bar after his Ford Raptor rolled over during the “48 hours flat”.
Nine-time world rally champion, Sébastien Loeb is still racing – for his ninth participation – after a first title on the Dakar, so often approached but never won (3rd in 2019 and 2024, 2nd in 2017, 2022 and 2023).
Due to rain on the route, the Dakar rally shortened to 327 km – compared to 496 km initially – the route of the third special between Bisha and Al Henakiyah.
The Dakar rally, currently dominated by the South African Henk Lategan in the car and the Australian Daniel Sanders in the motorcycle, ends on January 17 in the Empty Quarter desert.
