Dakar: Stage victory is little consolation for Loeb

The 46th Dakar Rally, held in Saudi Arabia, ended with the victory of Carlos Sainz – this is the fourth achievement in the Spanish driver’s career, and we have already provided his comments today.

But the 12th, final stage of the super marathon was won by Sebastien Loeb, who until yesterday had a chance to win, but lost due to bad luck with his Prodrive Hunter SUV. The nine-time world champion was able to continue moving, although he lost a lot of time, but according to the results of the rally attack, he took third place in it.

The second result at the Dakar distance, which started on January 5, was shown by the Belgian racer from the Overdrive Racing team Guillaume de Mevius – today he also finished second, losing to Loeb by more than five minutes. In the absolute rankings, Sebastien lost less than five minutes to him, meaning the well-known Frenchman was not that far away from second place in Dakar. However, he had already finished second three times in different years and he was only interested in victory, although he admitted that it was difficult to compete with the Audi factory team.

“In the end we made it to the podium,” said Loeb after the finish. “I have to say it’s not that bad considering where we were yesterday, sitting on a rock, waiting for the support truck.” In general, in my opinion, everything ended not so badly.

I think our chances against Audi were quite slim given the way the rally raid stages went for us, with their three cars still running together and all. However, we tried but we missed second place, we finished third but in the end we still finished.”

The Russian team of Denis Krotov and Konstantin Zhiltsov took 11th place in this rally raid – by the way, this is Krotov’s best result in all the years of appearances in Dakar.

In the two-wheeler class, Ricky Brabec, an American rider from the Honda factory team, won, but today’s stage was won by the Argentinian Kevin Benavidez, riding a KTM motorcycle – he took 4th place according to the results of the rally attack.

In the ATV category, his compatriot Manuel Andujar became the strongest and his lead over Alexandre Giraud was almost 8 minutes, although the Frenchman won today’s stage. But Andujar finished just 15 seconds behind him – he already won the Dakar in this class three years ago.

But among the drivers competing on light SUVs in the Challenger competition, Cristina Gutierrez Herrero’s Spanish crew achieved an unexpected victory. Just yesterday, the American Mitchell Guthrie confidently led in this category, but today he was unlucky, his equipment failed him and as a result he lost all his lead, which Christina took advantage of. She is a very experienced racer who has been competing in rallies, rally raids and the Extreme E off-road series for a long time, so her success is not at all coincidental. Besides, luck was on her side.

She became the first woman to win the Dakar since famed German racer Jutta Kleinschmidt, who won the rally raid in 2001, when it was still on the classic Paris-Dakar route.

In the SSV class, i.e. of all-terrain vehicles, the crew of the Sebastien Loeb Racing team won, and this is probably also a small consolation for Sebastien Loeb, the owner. It is interesting that another team took victory in today’s stage, but according to the results of the entire rally attack, Xavier de Soltre took first place.

There were no sensations in the cargo category – first place was taken by the Czech crew of Martin Masik, who competed in an Iveco Powerstar. In today’s final stage, he and his teammates were in no hurry, crossing the finish line in fifth place. The victory went to their compatriots, the trio of Ales Loprais, who drive a specially prepared Praga racing truck, built in the Czech Republic of course.

Returning to Carlos Sainz’s performance today, it is worth highlighting that his entire family witnessed his fourth victory in Dakar, including his son Carlos, a Ferrari driver, who flew to Saudi Arabia.

“My father and his co-driver have been excellent in this race from day one,” said Sainz Jr. “They didn’t make any mistakes; the Dakar turned out to be perfect for them. They have built their tactics very skillfully and implemented them perfectly. I think my father acted smarter than his rivals – only he knows how to organize the battle in this race in such a way.

I advised him not to give his best in every stage of the supermarathon, because the Dakar is still an endurance race, but he really likes to attack with full force, and to win he really had to attack.

I am proud of my father, and here, at the finish of the rally, all his best friends and people who love him and always support him have gathered. Now we must continue in the same way, for the sake of our entire family!”