It’s over for the 48-hour event of this Dakar 2025. The queen stage in a way of this 2025 edition. And Sébastien Loeb finishes in the Top 10 of the ranking and remains in the running in the general classification.
After a very complicated Sunday, Sébastien Loeb fared better alongside his co-driver Fabian Lurquin. He finished in 7th place, almost 15 minutes behind the Overdrive Al Rajhi – Gottschalk crew but gained time in the general classification and remained in the running in the general classification.
His teammate at Dacia, Nasser Al-Attiyah and his co-driver Edouard Boulanger finished this 2nd stage in 3rd place. For Carlos Sainz, this 48-hour stage was like a station of the cross. Accidented on Sunday, the Spanish driver lost a lot of time. He is 1h28 behind the leader of this Dakar 2025, the South African Henk Lategan. He finished this 2nd stage in 32nd position, 1h35 behind the winner.
The classification of stage 2 48 hours flat
- Al-Rajhi/Gottschalk | Overdrive Racing
- Lategan/Cummings |Toyota Gazoo Racing
- Al-Attiyah/Boulanger | Dacia Sandriders
- J.Yacopini – D.Oliveiras | Overdrive Racing
- R.Baciuska – O.Mena | Century Racing Factory Team
- M.Serradori – L.Minaudier | Century Racing Factory Team
- S.Loeb – Lurquin | Dacia Sandriders
- M. Ekström – E. Bergkvist | Ford M-Sport
- T.Price – S.Sunderland | Overdrive Racing
- B.Vanagas – S.Gospodarczyk |Toyota Gazoo Racing
- M.Guthrie – K.Walch | Ford M-Sport
- L.Moraes – A.Monleon |Toyota Gazoo Racing
- M.Prokop – V.Chytka | Orlen Jipocar Team
- J.Ferreira – F.Palmeiro | X-Raid Mini JCW Team
- U. Männama – R. Lepik | Overdrive Racing
- S.Quintero – D.Zenz |Toyota Gazoo Racing
- B.Baragwanath – L.Cremer | Century Racing Factory Team
- G.Zhang – Y.Wang | Hi-Tiger Racing Team
- B. Heger – M. Eddy | Sébastien Loeb Racing
- R. Spierings – J. Van Der Stelt | Team Rebellion & Spierings
Carlos Sainz at the wheel of his Ford finishes in 35th place. On his damaged Mini, the Frenchman Guerlain Chicherit takes 22nd place finishing more than an hour behind the leader. Finally, Carlos Sainz’s runner-up in 2024, Guillaume De Mévius, cannot do better than 58th. Blame it on mechanical problems.
The general classification at the end of the 2nd stage
- Lategan/Cummings |Toyota Gazoo Racing
- Al-Rajhi/Gottschalk | Overdrive Racing
- Al-Attiyah/Boulanger | Dacia Sandriders
- T.Price – S.Sunderland | Overdrive Racing
- M. Ekström – E. Bergkvist | Ford M-Sport
- S.Loeb – F.Lurquin | Dacia Sandriders
- L.Moraes – A.Monleon |Toyota Gazoo Racing
- M.Guthrie – K.Walch | Ford M-Sport
- M.Serradori – L.Minaudier | Century Racing Factory Team
- J.Yacopini – D.Oliveiras | Overdrive Racing
- M.Prokop – V.Chytka | Orlen Jipocar Team
- J.Ferreira – F.Palmeiro | X-Raid Mini JCW Team
- S.Quintero – D.Zenz |Toyota Gazoo Racing
- B.Vanagas – S.Gospodarczyk |Toyota Gazoo Racing
- B.Baragwanath – L.Cremer | Century Racing Factory Team
- G.Chicherit – A.Winocq | X-Raid Mini JCW Team
- U. Männama – R. Lepik | Overdrive Racing
- N.Cavigliasso – V.Petergarini | Team BBR
- S.Vitse – M.Delfino | MD Rally Sport
- G.Guerreiro – C.Sachs | Red Bull Off Road
- C.Sainz – L.Cruz | Ford M-Sport – 26e
- G.De Mevius – M.Baumel | X-Raid Mini JCW Team – 44e
The reaction of the drivers at the finish
Sébastien Loeb – 7th of the stage
“It was complicated for us. She started well. Then we had fan problems which cause the engine to heat up. We found ourselves broken down. It went 5 km, it stopped… In the end we limit the damage. We resume 14 minutes… The car is designed to run with fans. We have three. If we lose one, we drive with reduced power, if we lose two, it stops moving at all and we have to stop. We have to find the solution, that’s for sure.… When we dragged ourselves to the first refueling it was to give up there. For 50 km we stopped at each dune to try to gain momentum to climb the next dune. And since it’s electronic, we can’t do anything. Thanks to Pablo (Moreno) and luck, it worked again.”
Carlos Sainz – 35th of the stage
“After two promising days, I rolled over which caused us to lose a lot of time. I tried to find the solution to go back but we had increasingly serious technical problems. It was impossible to do better than what we did there. We know that anything can happen on the Dakar but that’s not the way we wanted to move forward… We will continue to attack and we will see what we can do. The mechanics have to look at the car but for me we are able to continue”.
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Nasser Al-Attiyah – 3rd of the stage 48hr time
It was very hard at times… we had a puncture 50 km from the finish. Eventually I’m pretty happy to be at the finish and to see that we didn’t have any big problems.
Photo credit: ASO/A.Vincent/DPPI.
Belgium
