Always fun to read a reference to that team as an Argentine :D
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Its the first year that Elena did not fuck up Loebs dakar...
Loeb was the fastest on previous dakars as well but seems Dakar is his cryptonite.
There is always next year.
3:42 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVY18zZZ9Lo&t=158s
Loeb: "I'm not going to say never is never, but there you go, I've had enough."
The Dakar is awful, but then months later the challenge sucks you back in.
may be you are correct
however, i can sympathize with the desire to push for the win in this case as this is now his 4th attempt at the annual event and he already has a prior 2nd place. From the early technical glitch he was over 30 mins off the lead by stage 3. There are always risks in pushing so hard; sometimes it pays off, sometimes it doesn't. Dakar is a long rally and anything can happen to any competitor at any time and he needed to be in a position to capitalize on that opportunity if it arose---in this case, being in 2nd place and as close to N. Al-Attiyah as possible.
plus it makes the rally more exciting too