Dakar Rally 2023

[NaBUru38]

The 2024 Dakar Rally will be held on January 5-19 in Saudi Arabia.

The main race will feature 12 stages connecting Al-'Ula, Shaybah and Yanbu, with 4,727 km timed and 7,891 km total. The entries comprise 137 motorcycles, 10 quads, 72 Ultimate cars (T1 / T2), 42 Challengers (T3), 36 SSV (T4), 3 stocks, 46 trucks (T5).

Meanwhile, the Dakar Classic regularity race will be held over 3,586 km timed and 7,366 km total, with 66 cars and 14 trucks.

In addition there's 10 entries for the Mission 1000, a 1000 km non-competitive event for alternative energy vehicles.

[NaBUru38]

Motorcycle entries include:

* Honda: #7 CHI Pablo Quintanilla, #9 USA Ricky Brabec, #10 USA Skyler Howes, #11 CHI José Ignacio Cornejo, #42 FRA Adrien van Beveren, #68 ESP Tosha Schareina.
* Gas Gas: #4 GBR Sam Sunderland, AUS Daniel Sanders.
* Husqvarna: #1 ARG Luciano Benavides.
* KTM: #2 AUS Toby Price, #47 ARG Kevin Benavides, #52 AUT Matthias Walkner.
* Hero: #14 GER Sebastian Bühler, #27 POR Joaquim Rodrigues, #46 BWA Ross Branch, #88 ESP Joan Barreda Bort.
* Sherco: #15 ESP Lorenzo Santolino, #19 POR Rui Gonçalves, #20 IND Harith Noah Koitha Veettil.

Ultimate T1 cars include:

* Prodrive: #200 QAT Nasser Al-Attiyah, #203 FRA Sebastien Loeb.
* Audi: #202 FRA Stéphane Peterhansel, #204 ESP Carlos Sainz #207 SWE Mattias Ekström.
* Ford: #208 CZE Martin Prokop, #210 ESP Nani Roma, #225 RSA Gareth Woolridge.
* Mini: #214 LTU Vaidotas Zala, #217 POL Krzysztof Holowczyc, #230 ESP Pau Navarro.
* Toyota Gazoo: #206 BRA Lucas Moraes, #209 RSA Giniel De Villiers, #216 USA Seth Quintero, #226 RSA Saood Variawa.
* Toyota Overdrive: #201 SAU Yazeed Al Rajhi, #205 ARG Juan Cruz Yacopini, #211 FRA Guerlain Chicherit.
* Toyota Baltics: #223 LTU Benediktas Vanagas.
* Toyota Rebellion: #231 FRA Romain Dumas.
* BAIC: #224 CHN Zhang Guoyu, CHN Yunliang Zi.
* Astara: #238 ESP Laia Sanz, #262 Patricia Pita :)

[NaBUru38]

Matthias Walkner got multiple fractures while testing in California, and will miss the Dakar Rally.

[focus206]

Dakar started with the short prologue, won by Ekstrom (Audi), in front of Seth Quintero (Toyota, +23s), Loeb and Marcos Baumgart (both Prodrive, both +38s).

[dimviii]

not a good day for Loeb and Nasser with brx from prodrive.18th for Loeb and 22th for Nasser.
to be honest when i read that Nasser will switch from Toyota to Prodrive was afraid if his choice was correct.
Lets see, if he knows something more.

https://www.dakar.com/en/rankings

[focus206]

Loeb wrote on his Facebook page that the time loss was because of puncture + mechanical trouble.
In my opinion Nasser wanted a new challenge, with a worse car... he was dominating almost every raid with Toyota. And he'll remain with Prodrive for the Dacia project.

Top 5 after stage 1:
1 - Guillaume De Mevius (Toyota Overdrive)
2 - Carlos Sainz (Audi) + 1m 44s
3 - Giniel De Villiers (Toyota) + 9m 18s
4 - Vaidotas Zala (Mini) + 10m 42s
5 - Romain Dumas (Toyota Rebellion Racing) +12m 18s

[dimviii]

Loeb

"Slaloming among stones at 30 km/h is not our idea of fun. We knew it wouldn't be a great stage in terms of driving, but we had to do it. We overcame it, but not without problems. We had a flat tyre once and we also had to change a tong link. All that cost us a quarter of an hour, but we're here... It was hell, we were just hoping to avoid any more punctures. We made it, that's all that matters now."


Nasser
"We punctured twice in the first fifty kilometers, so after that we couldn't really attack any more and we just tried to reach the finish. Even so, I'm happy because it was really difficult and we had to take it really easy in the last 150 kilometres."

[focus206]

Today stage victory for Peterhansel, in front of Loeb and Seth Quintero. The Prodrive Hunter seems much better on sand, such was today's surface, but way too fragile on rocky terrain.

Top 5:
1 - Carlos Sainz (Audi)
2 - Yazeed Al Rajhi (Toyota Overdrive) + 1m 51s
3 - Sebastien Loeb (Prodrive) + 4m 17s
4 - Seth Quintero (Toyota) + 7m 36s
5 - Guillaume De Mevius (Toyota Overdrive) +7m 44s

Ekstrom is 6th, Nasser 7th, Peterhansel 9th.

[dimviii]

Nasser Al Attiyah


"It was good, very fast. We pushed from the beginning, but we broke a rear arm and we stopped for more than ten minutes to repair. I think it's a weak point of this car because Séb' broke the same arm yesterday. We'll try to speak with the team to fix the problems. I enjoy the car a lot, even with all the problems we had today and yesterday, we're still in the game, it's only twelve minutes in the overall."


Loeb
"Today was a nice special. Unlike yesterday, there was something for us to do apart from keeping our car and tyres in one piece. Driving skills were front and centre in this special, with a bit of everything: dunes, tracks, off-track sections, tough navigation with hidden pitfalls… A bit of everything. We made a couple of navigation mistakes, but we soon found our way back. I hope to see Stéphane Peterhansel at the front… to open the road tomorrow!"

[dimviii]

Loeb
Today, Loeb et Lurquin suffered three punctures and so had to repair their tyre, losing 23 minutes to the stage winner. In the general rankings, the Prodrive crew occupy 9th place, almost 25 minutes behind the leader.
“It was a complicated day with three punctures, so after the third one we had to repair. We lost a lot of time repairing the tyre and inflating it again. Then we had to stop every twenty kilometres because it was losing air, so we lost a lot of time with this. It’s a bit of bad luck, because the punctures were all on the tread of the tyre, so it wasn’t like we were pushing very hard in the stones. Sometimes you have punctures driving slowly, sometimes you go fast and you have no punctures. It’s difficult to understand really how we can manage that and everybody is struggling with that. That’s how it is”.

[focus206]

Stage win for Moraes in front of Ekstrom and Al Rajhi.

Top 5 after today:
1 - Yazeed Al Rajhi (Toyota Overdrive)
2 - Carlos Sainz (Audi) + 29s
3 - Mattias Ekstrom (Audi) + 8m 26s
4 - Lucas Moraes (Toyota) + 9m 17s
5 - Nasser Al Attiyah (Prodrive) + 10m 49s

Peterhansel 8th, Loeb 9th.

[EstWRC]

Loeb again with 3 punctures today. Every year the same

[focus206]

Nasser also got 3 punctures and finished on 3 wheels, bust must have happened towards the end because he finished the stage in 4th, 1 minute and a half behind the winner. Could it be that the Prodrive Hunter is very puncture prone? Hiluxes rarely get that many punctures...

[dimviii]

Nasser also got 3 punctures and finished on 3 wheels, bust must have happened towards the end because he finished the stage in 4th, 1 minute and a half behind the winner. Could it be that the Prodrive Hunter is very puncture prone? Hiluxes rarely get that many punctures...

about Loeb

We lost a lot of time repairing the tyre and inflating it again. Then we had to stop every twenty kilometres because it was losing air, so we lost a lot of time with this.

[Mirek]

If you are interested Macík has his daily videos with English subtitles.
https://www.youtube.com/@martinmacikjr/videos

[focus206]

Loeb wins stage 4 in front of Al Rajhi and Al Attiyah and moves up to 6th (+ 23m 50s)

Top 5:
1 - Yazeed Al Rajhi (Toyota Overdrive)
2 - Carlos Sainz (Audi) + 4m 29s
3 - Nasser Al Attiyah (Prodrive) + 11m 03s
4 - Lucas Moraes (Toyota) + 19m 31s
5 - Mattias Ekstrom (Audi) + 19m 42s

[focus206]

Stage win for Nasser, in front of Chicherit and Yacopini (both Toyota Overdrive).
Loeb lost 21 minutes (6 minutes loss + 15 minutes penalty for missing a checkpoint) and said: "We lost big time today in the hope of winning big time tomorrow" in the marathon stage. I can only guess he wants to start far back, even though 21 minutes loss seems a lot.

Top 5 after today:
1 - Yazeed Al Rajhi (Toyota Overdrive)
2 - Nasser Al Attiyah (Prodrive) + 9m 03s
3 - Carlos Sainz (Audi) + 11m 31s
4 - Mattias Ekstrom (Audi) + 22m 58s
5 - Mathieu Serradori (Century) + 31m 00s

Peterhansel is 6th (+ 34m 12s), Loeb is 9th (+ 43m 03s)

[lmmjvss]

So many flat tires , eh? Is there any rule preventing tire brands to build partnerships with teams to test some new products. Like on those Rocky Stages, maybe some "Twheels" could help, no? I mean, Dakar IS THE PLACE for that..... since WRC dont want to be the place for innovations haha

[focus206]

Half way through today's marathon stage, Sainz is leading with 3 minutes and a half on Ekstrom and 5 minutes on Loeb.
Nasser is around 20 minutes back, Peterhansel stopped for mechanical trouble, overall leader Al Rajhi crashed.

[focus206]

Loeb wins the 48 hours marathon stage, Sainz is second 2 minutes behind, Ekstrom is third 11 minutes behind. As expected though, the penalty of 15 minutes of the stage before resulted too big, and overall Loeb lost ground to Sainz and Ekstrom, even if gaining 3rd place overall.
Nasser broke a steering arm and lost more than 2 hours.

Top 5 after today:
1 - Carlos Sainz (Audi)
2 - Mattias Ekstrom (Audi) + 20m 21s
3 - Sebastien Loeb (Prodrive) + 29m 31s
4 - Lucas Moraes (Toyota) + 1h 04m 00s
5 - Guillaume De Mevius (Toyota Overdrive) + 1h 09m 47s

11 drivers under the 2 hours gap from Sainz, with De Villiers 6th and Prokop 7th.

[fiscorpun]

Loeb wins the 48 hours marathon stage, Sainz is second 2 minutes behind, Ekstrom is third 11 minutes behind. As expected though, the penalty of 15 minutes of the stage before resulted too big, and overall Loeb lost ground to Sainz and Ekstrom, even if gaining 3rd place overall.
Nasser broke a steering arm and lost more than 2 hours.

Top 5 after today:
1 - Carlos Sainz (Audi)
2 - Mattias Ekstrom (Audi) + 20m 21s
3 - Sebastien Loeb (Prodrive) + 29m 31s
4 - Lucas Moraes (Toyota) + 1h 04m 00s
5 - Guillaume De Mevius (Toyota Overdrive) + 1h 09m 47s

11 drivers under the 2 hours gap from Sainz, with De Villiers 6th and Prokop 7th.

Loeb P3 overall? Oh I guess I was reading results in a bad website then haha
This is great! Lots of stages yet to be raced, hope he can catch the Audis

[dimviii]

https://twitter.com/fernischumi/status/1745819282729009429

[focus206]

Loeb P3 overall? Oh I guess I was reading results in a bad website then haha
This is great! Lots of stages yet to be raced, hope he can catch the Audis

It will depend a lot from Prodrive's questionable reliability...

[Red bull]

Ford in negotiations with Carlos Sainz for Dakar 2025. https://www.relevo.com/rallies/dakar/malcolm-wilson-carlos-sainz-ford-20240112055949-nt.html?fbclid=IwAR1n0rdt4kdC_Tkm25VtCVVbSeBJQvv1t zuILHCtZAWNfbdngZDlnfxzyTY

[focus206]

Ekstrom stopped with broken suspension, he continues but lost a lot of time and he's most likely out of contention for the podium. Loeb won today's stage in front of Moraes and Al Attiyah, 4th is overall leader Sainz (+ 10m 31s).

Top 5 after today:
1 - Carlos Sainz (Audi)
2 - Sebastien Loeb (Prodrive) + 19m 00s
3 - Lucas Moraes (Toyota) + 1h 00m 34s
4 - Guillaume De Mevius (Toyota Overdrive) +1h 30m 50s
5 - Giniel De Villiers (Toyota) +1h 40m 07s

[dimviii]

Nasser

"We suffered two punctures. After the second time, the car got wobbly, and that's when we realised we'd broken a rear arm. It's a weak point of this car that we need to fix. Even so, we finished in the top 3, which is a good result."
https://img.aso.fr/core_app/img-motorSports-dak-jpg/al-attiyah-stage7/183968/0:0,800:451-800-0-70/4897c

[dimviii]

Sainz

"Quite a difficult day, with the navigation. We also had a puncture. I think Séb' did really well. 10 minutes is quite a lot. I don't really know what happened [to Ekström]. We'll see."

Loeb
"We had a good stage. No big mistakes. The navigation was really tricky. We were the first car, so... We had to make the line, but sometimes it's better, because we were really concentrated on our job and I was pushing hard, trying to be very conscientious in the tricky navigation parts, and we did it very well."

[focus206]

Very good job by Loeb considering he was 1st on the road.
I saw the highlights of when Nasser broke the suspension arm in the marathon stage, he was checking it and then said to the camera "it's not strong enough"...
I think Loeb can catch Sainz on speed, but we'll see the reliability. The electric Audi buggy is not super robust either. Behind them, there's 3 reliable Toyota Hilux ready to steal the victory in case something big happens.

[lmmjvss]

Goczal DSQ!!!!! Oh man that sucks. Its always something like: "But the rulebook allows this thing". - "Nope, it deosnt" - "Its written here, ffs" - "Nah, it means a different thing".
They will appeal, but the race is over for the team

[focus206]

Some considerations on the major teams

Prodrive: car is fast but fragile, Loeb's hopes depend on if the car keeps it together

Audi: also fast but too fragile. If Sainz runs into big trouble and loses the podium, it would be a disaster for Audi at Dakar (best result in 2022: 9th, best result in 2023: 14th)

Toyota: imo still the best car, but you can tell they're without Nasser. Al Rajhi is fast but mistake prone, De Villiers reliable but not among the fastest. At least Moraes is doing excellent for his 2nd Dakar, De Mevius too.

Mini: I don't know what's the future plan for X-Raid, but only 3 Minis this year (there used to be 6-8 works ones + some privateers). All of them had troubles and are either retired or more than 50 hours behind.

Ford: Not a good debut for M-Sport, Nani Roma has technical troubles today and is now classified 35 hours behind, Woolridge crashed and is even more behind. At least there's Prokop in his Ford in 6th.

[focus206]

Stage win for Ekstrom, in front of Peterhansel and Chicherit. Loeb was leading the stage with 3 minutes gap on Sainz but then something happened and finished the stage 6 minutes behind Sainz. Nasser with the other Prodrive had engine troubles and couldn't finish the stage.

Top 5 after today:
1 - Carlos Sainz (Audi)
2 - Sebastien Loeb (Prodrive) + 24m 47s
3 - Lucas Moraes (Toyota) + 1h 05m 13s
4 - Guillaume De Mevius (Toyota Overdrive) + 1h 34m 18s
5 - Giniel De Villiers (Toyota) + 1h 45m 12s

[dimviii]

Loeb was leading the stage with 3 minutes gap on Sainz but then something happened and finished the stage 6 minutes behind Sainz.

navigation error

“It was a difficult day today. We had a good stage. I was really pushing hard all through the stage, but we made a mistake with the navigation and lost around ten minutes, so we again lost quite a lot of time to Carlos”.

[dimviii]

6,50 at the video,Nasser not happy at all.
we had problems from day 1.
Last 2 years he havent got any problems(with Toyota)
https://www.dakar.com/en/news/2024/out-of-the-fight-for-glory-but-still-fighting-today/188746

[focus206]

6,50 at the video,Nasser not happy at all.
we had problems from day 1.
Last 2 years he havent got any problems(with Toyota)
https://www.dakar.com/en/news/2024/out-of-the-fight-for-glory-but-still-fighting-today/188746

Nasser must have known he was leaving the best car/team... but maybe he didn't expect this level of unreliability from Prodrive. Loeb was "lucky" so far he didn't have any rally-ending technical trouble, but maybe he's also driving more carefully being used to Prodrive vs Nasser driving more aggressively being used to Toyota.
It will be hard to catch Carlos if he doesn't make navigation mistakes / punctures etc.

[focus206]

Stage win for Loeb in front of Sainz (+ 4m 14s) and Serradori (+ 4m 43s). Sainz still has a comfortable lead, but a mistake or a puncture can change things.

Top 5:
1 - Carlos Sainz (Audi)
2 - Sebastien Loeb (Prodrive) + 20m 33s
3 - Lucas Moraes (Toyota) + 1h 12m 02s
4 - Guillaume De Mevius (Toyota Overdrive) + 1h 39m 56s
5 - Giniel De Villiers (Toyota) + 2h 00m 12s

[dimviii]

Loeb

“It was a good day for us, a long stage. We had two punctures in the middle of the stage, so at the end I had to be a bit careful and not have a third one. But overall, we took three minutes out of Carlos. The gap is still big, but we still have three stages to go. So, we’ll see and we’ll continue to push for the next three days”.


Peterhansel

“We were in first, second and fourth this morning, with Chicherit in the middle, who we overtook. I waited for Carlos for 6 minutes at the start to escort him throughout the special, always thirty seconds behind just in case. It wasn’t easy for him because as long as there were cars in front, they were laying down tracks, but for the last 200 km he opened on his own. You could see that he was hesitating a few times, which isn’t too bad a thing when navigating, but it still wasn’t an easy stage.
. Carlos is in a good position. But Sébastien is capable of recovering ten minutes a day, or even more if he goes to the limit. So, I can understand why Carlos is stressed. Having 20-25 minutes is good, but if you have a technical problem, you lose them very quickly”.

Sainz
“I think I’m happy with the stage, bearing in mind I opened quite a lot. At the end it was very stressful inside the car and very difficult to navigate. The three cars were together, so it was good, I knew I had some support behind me”.

[NaBUru38]

Mallet moto rider Carles Falcón died after being in induced coma.

[NaBUru38]

Classification after stage 9:

Bikes

USA Ricky Brabec (Honda), 40:53'49
BWA Ross Branch (Hero), + 7'
FRA Adrien van Beveren (Honda), + 11'
CHI José Ignacio Cornejo (Honda) + 13'
ARG Kevin Benavides (KTM), + 28'
AUS Toby Price (KTM), + 35'
ARG Luciano Benavides (Husqvarna), + 49'
AUS Daniel Sanders (Gas Gas), + 59'
SVK Stefan Svitko (KTM), + 1:23'
CZE Martin Michek (KTM), + 2:20'
FRA Romain Dumontier (Husqvarna), + 2:24'
FRA Jeanloup Lepan (KTM), + 2:35'

T1 Ultimate Cars

ESP Carlos Sainz (Audi), 37:50'57
FRA Sebastien Loeb (Prodrive), + 20'
BRA Lucas Moraes (Toyota), + 1:12'
BEL Guillaume de Mevius (Toyota), + 1:39'
FRA Mathieu Serradori (Century), + 2:03'
FRA Guerlain Chicherit (Toyota), + 2:12'
CZE Martin Prokop (Ford), + 2:12'
RSA Giniel de Villiers (Toyota), + 2:15'
RSA Guy David Botterill (Toyota), + 2:29'
LTU Benediktas Vanagas (Toyota), + 2:29'
KGZ Denis Krotov (Toyota), + 3:21'
BRA Cristian Baumgart (Prodrive), +3:47'

T3 Challengers

USA Mitchell Guthrie (Taurus), 42:09'25
ESP Cristina Gutiérrez (Taurus), + 28'
CHI Francisco López (Can-Am), + 36'
LTU Rokas Baciuska (Can-Am), + 1:22'
USA Austin Jones (Can-Am), + 1:27'

T4 SSV

FRA Xavier de Soultrait (Polaris), 44:53'33
USA Sara Price (Can-Am), + 28'
SUI Jerome de Sadeleer (Polaris), + 31'
SAU Yasir Seaidan (Can-Am), 37'
POR Joao Ferreira (Can-Am), + 1:18'
ECU Sebastián Guayasamin (Can-Am), + 2:27'


T5 Trucks

CZE Martin Macik (Iveco), 43:26'01
CZE Ales Loprais (Praga), + 1:54'
NED Mitchel van der Brink (Iveco), + 2:12'
NED Janus van Kasteren (Iveco), + 4:36'
NED Vick Versteejnen (Iveco), + 7:25'
NED Michiel Becx (Iveco), + 10:49'

Quads:

ARG Manuel Andujar (Yamaha), 51:07'27
FRA Alexandre Giroud (Yamaha), + 6'
SVK Juraj Varga (Yamaha), + 3:08'
LTU Laisvydas Kancius (Yamaha), + 5:24'
LTU Anastas Kanopkinas (CFMoto), + 27:05'

[focus206]

Nasser decided to retire from this year's Dakar, stating "Sorry, I don't want to jump again in this car"

[dimviii]

source?

found it at extendet hgh lights
harsh words from Nasser!

[EstWRC]

Loeb was really homing in to Sainz, gaining 16 minutes but now also he stopped for 5 minutes and the gap is 9 minutes

[dimviii]

SAINZ AND LOEB AT THE FINISH | ULTIMATE
13:15

Sébastien Loeb and Carlos Sainz have wrapped up the special, with the Frenchman gaining just over 7 minutes on his Spanish rival in the overall. 13′22″ separate the two with two stages to go until the end of the 46th Dakar. Sainz had a big scare after coming to a halt and losing precious minutes, but Mattias Ekström and Stéphane Peterhansel rode to his rescue.

[dimviii]

Carlos Sainz - Stage 10 - ENG



"I lost seven minutes or eight minutes. I had to wait for Mattias because I was running out of tyres."

[dimviii]

Loeb

"It was a hard day for us. We had a problem with the [jack] of the car and we had two punctures, so we needed to climb the rocks to find a way to lift the rear tyre to be able to change it. We lost about 15 minutes like this. For sure, it's a bit frustrating, but okay. The stages are hard, it seems Carlos is still losing some time, so at the end, we'll see where we are tonight."

[focus206]

With 2 stages to go (tomorrow 480 Km special, the last one is a short 175 Km special), gap between Sainz and Loeb is 13 minutes 22 seconds... I think it's just a bit too much to close with speed alone, even if Loeb goes flat out.
The stage was won by Chicherit (Toyota Overdrive) in front of Baragwanath (Century) and Vanagas (Toyota Baltics). Chicherit gets into the top 5, De Villiers loses 3 places and drops to 8th.

Top 5:
1 - Carlos Sainz (Audi)
2 - Sebastien Loeb (Prodrive) + 13m 22s
3 - Lucas Moraes (Toyota) + 1h 02m 44s
4 - Guillaume De Mevius (Toyota Overdrive) + 1h 27m 09s
5 - Guerlain Chicherit (Toyota Overdrive) + 1h 47m 55s

[Mirek]

13 minutes is probably indeed too much for speed alone but it's definitely far from being a comfortable gap. Punctures, navigation errors or whatever other problems may still come.

[dimviii]

“Sorry, I don’t want to jump back into this car,” said an indignant Al-Attiyah. And he stuck to his word.

Loeb did his best to be pragmatic about his only potential helping hand against the Audi trio not sticking around to assist.

“He’s doing what he wants,” was Loeb’s riposte. “For sure in this situation, he was not so motivated to continue, he had some troubles. At one point he decided to leave. That’s his decision. It’s like that.

“He’s doing his own rally; he’s not doing the Dakar to help me. That’s how it is.

“For sure if I had another car starting behind me tomorrow it would be better.”

The other problem is the Hunter. Punctures are a given on the Dakar but both Loeb and Al-Attiyah, before he abandoned the race, had especially struggled with them. And it’s partly down to the design of the car itself.

“It’s our weak point; we have easily some punctures with the heat of the exhaust that are heating the rear tires,” explained Loeb.

Loeb is out of strategic options; this is no longer a chess match. He has to catch over 13 minutes in two stages. All he can do is push on.

Dakar’s penultimate test is a rough, rock-strewn affair, though. The puncture risk is high as it is. Knowing he’s potentially more liable to tire trouble than Sainz but with the need to push on, Loeb will have to strike the finest of balances on Thursday.

His road position is also a double-edged sword: good because he has some lines to follow, bad because of the increased puncture risk of running in the dust.

“I hope the dust will not be too big a problem also because we saw today a lot of guys complaining about the dust,” Loeb added.

“For me, when I changed the second wheel, I had two cars passing, I was in the dust, it was impossible to catch, so I decided to lift and stay behind because I couldn’t see anything and it was too risky to get another puncture in this situation.

“So hopefully tomorrow we will be able to overtake.”

He’ll need to make some passes. Starting 17th on the road, Loeb has Peterhansel directly in front of him and Sainz two cars behind.

https://dirtfish.com/off-road/dakar/the-two-problems-loeb-faces-to-win-dakar/

[focus206]

Sainz today had 3 punctures and was "saved" by Ekstrom, who gave him one spare tyre. With Nasser leaving, Loeb has no teammates (unless he can count on the private Hunter of Cristian Baumgart in 12th?).
For sure tomorrow Loeb will push but he'll need to drive exceptionally well to close most of the gap (last day will be short) without suffering punctures and it will be hard in the rocky terrain, as Loeb stated in the interview quoted by dimviii. Mission almost impossible, but if there's someone who can do it, it's Loeb.

[Arnold Triyudho Wardono]

Nasser decided to retire from this year's Dakar, stating "Sorry, I don't want to jump again in this car"Imagine if Nasser would jumping ship to M-Sport next year..

Sent from my M2010J19CG using Tapatalk

[dimviii]

Sainz today had 3 punctures and was "saved" by Ekstrom, who gave him one spare tyre. .

so after 3 punctures,he could push again and have 2 spares for the rest of stage.
at this video at 6,20 we can see all 3 audis and 3 people to change Sainz tyres
https://www.dakar.com/en/stage-10/bike/gallery/video

[dimviii]

Loeb trying to change a wheel after the jack of the car was blocked and couldnt lift the car
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10160211024393752&id=680228751&mibextid=KsPBc6&wtsid=rdr_0j7lkP55j95uoE7jm&refsrc=deprecated&from_intent_deeplink=1

[fiscorpun]

Go Seb! jeeez, tomorrow is going to be intense

[EstWRC]

It’s over. Loeb standing

[focus206]

Not surprising, the two weak points of this Prodrive Hunter... broken arms and punctures. What's surprising is drivers such as Loeb and Nasser driving for Prodrive...

[focus206]

The stage was won by Chicherit, in front of De Mevius and Sainz. Loeb was able to stay on the podium because Moraes lost 2 hours and dropped to 9th, which means the top 2 Hilux are from Overdrive Racing and not from the "works" Gazoo Racing.
175 Km to go for Carlos for his 4th Dakar (5th if we consider the Central Europe Rally 2008 which was ran in place of the African Dakar, but it's usually not counted).

Top 5 before the final stage:
1 - Carlos Sainz (Audi)
2 - Guillaume De Mevius (Toyota Overdrive) + 1h 26m 06s
3 - Sebastien Loeb (Prodrive) + 1h 36m 02s
4 - Guerlain Chicherit (Toyota Overdrive) + 1h 41m 20s
5 - Martin Prokop (Ford Jipocar) + 2h 16m 47s

[NaBUru38]

Classification after stage 11:

Bikes

USA Ricky Brabec (Honda), 49:37'57
BWA Ross Branch (Hero), + 10'
FRA Adrien van Beveren (Honda), + 14'
CHI José Ignacio Cornejo (Honda) + 38'
ARG Kevin Benavides (KTM), + 42'
AUS Toby Price (KTM), + 47'
ARG Luciano Benavides (Husqvarna), + 55'
AUS Daniel Sanders (Gas Gas), + 1:12'
SVK Stefan Svitko (KTM), + 1:54'
CZE Martin Michek (KTM), + 2:43'
IND Harith Hoah (Sherco), + 2:53'
FRA Romain Dumontier (Husqvarna), + 2:59'

T1 Ultimate Cars

ESP Carlos Sainz (Audi), 46:24'47
BEL Guillaume de Mevius (Toyota), + 1:26'
FRA Sebastien Loeb (Prodrive), + 1:36'
FRA Guerlain Chicherit (Toyota), + 1:41'
CZE Martin Prokop (Ford), + 2:16'
RSA Guy David Botterill (Toyota), + 2:40'
RSA Giniel de Villiers (Toyota), + 2:50'
LTU Benediktas Vanagas (Toyota), + 3:00'
BRA Lucas Moraes (Toyota), + 3:05'
FRA Mathieu Serradori (Century), + 3:08'
KGZ Denis Krotov (Toyota), + 3:42'
FRA Stéphane Peterhansel (Audi), + 4:15'

T3 Challengers

USA Mitchell Guthrie (Taurus), 51:38'06
ESP Cristina Gutiérrez (Taurus), + 25'
LTU Rokas Baciuska (Can-Am), + 1:20'
CHI Francisco López (Can-Am), + 1:24'
USA Austin Jones (Can-Am), + 2:02'

T4 SSV

FRA Xavier de Soultrait (Polaris), 54:35'11
SUI Jerome de Sadeleer (Polaris), + 2'49
SAU Yasir Seaidan (Can-Am), 1:03'
USA Sara Price (Can-Am), + 1:07'
POR Joao Ferreira (Can-Am), + 1:19'
ECU Sebastián Guayasamin (Can-Am), + 3:32'

T5 Trucks

CZE Martin Macik (Iveco), 52:31'45
CZE Ales Loprais (Praga), + 2:01'
NED Mitchel van der Brink (Iveco), + 4:27'
NED Janus van Kasteren (Iveco), + 5:26'
NED Vick Versteejnen (Iveco), + 10 h
NED Michiel Becx (Iveco), + 11 h

Quads:

ARG Manuel Andujar (Yamaha), 62:11'24
FRA Alexandre Giroud (Yamaha), + 8'
SVK Juraj Varga (Yamaha), + 3:45'
LTU Laisvydas Kancius (Yamaha), + 6:46'
LTU Anastas Kanopkinas (CFMoto), + 48 h

[fiscorpun]

I love the ProDrive team but Loeb deserves a better team for next year.
I HOPE Dacia can help, honestly... Audi is leaving the sport and Ford will not bring biiiig money to the Msport car...
MAYBE 2025? But jeeeez, fix those arms... And theres must be something wrong on the weight to get that amount of puncters year after year... AAAhhh

[focus206]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ps50c5BZ5cI

Highlights of today's stage + bits of yesterday's stage. Loeb was stranded and was rescued by Chinese private Hunter driver Yungang Zi, one of the two other remaining Hunter drivers. He might have saved the podium for Loeb, who otherwise would have waited for the Prodrive assistance truck to arrive, I imagine.
Also nice sportsmanship from Seb saluting Carlos passing by and telling him to slow down on the rocky terrain.
At minute 5:31 very angry Fabian Lurquin (I think the angry voice is him and not Seb) from yesterday's punctures.

[dimviii]

. And theres must be something wrong on the weight to get that amount of puncters year after year... AAAhhh

car tent to have so many punctures due to wrong exhaust design=overheating tyres.
Except that its obvious that suspension wise is wrong.Car jumping at rear like group A car.
Car is not only unreliable is slow too.
Dont know if prodrive can design a better car when dacia will race at 2025.
Problems with current car didnt manage to find a solution for 3 years...

[focus206]

Congratulations to Carlos, amazing that at his age he's still fast and consistent. He was also the only Audi without major issues (Peterhansel retired today with engine problems). I was hoping Loeb would get his first Dakar as he deserves it for putting up with that trash Prodrive, but if not Seb I'm glad Carlos got it.
Loeb won the last stage but it wasn't enough to get 2nd place back as De Mevius finished the stage in 2nd and so kept 2nd overall.

Final Top 10:
1 - Carlos Sainz (Audi)
2 - Guillaume De Mevius (Toyota Overdrive) + 1h 20m 25s
3 - Sebastien Loeb (Prodrive) + 1h 29m 12s
4 - Guerlain Chicherit (Toyota Overdrive) + 1h 35m 59s
5 - Martin Prokop (Ford Jipocar) + 2h 16m 43s
6 - Guy Botterill (Toyota) + 2h 40m 33s
7 - Giniel De Villiers (Toyota) + 2h 50m 26s
8 - Benediktas Vanagas (Toyota Baltics) + 2h 57m 17s
9 - Lucas Moraes (Toyota) + 3h 03m 12s
10 - Mathieu Serradori (Century) + 3h 04m 12s

[NaBUru38]

Bikes

USA Ricky Brabec (Honda), 51:30'08
BWA Ross Branch (Hero), + 10'
FRA Adrien van Beveren (Honda), + 12'
ARG Kevin Benavides (KTM), + 38'
AUS Toby Price (KTM), + 45'
CHI José Ignacio Cornejo (Honda) + 46'
ARG Luciano Benavides (Husqvarna), + 53'
AUS Daniel Sanders (Gas Gas), + 1:14'
SVK Stefan Svitko (KTM), + 1:56'
CZE Martin Michek (KTM), + 2:48'
IND Harith Hoah (Sherco), + 2:54'
FRA Romain Dumontier (Husqvarna), + 2:59'

T3 Challengers

ESP Cristina Gutiérrez (Taurus), 53:59'47
USA Mitchell Guthrie (Taurus), + 36'
LTU Rokas Baciuska (Can-Am), + 58'
CHI Francisco López (Can-Am), + 1:11'
USA Austin Jones (Can-Am), + 1:44'
SAU Saleh Alsaif (GRally), 3:11'

T4 SSV

FRA Xavier de Soultrait (Polaris), 56:37'43
SUI Jerome de Sadeleer (Polaris), + 2'25
SAU Yasir Seaidan (Can-Am), 1:04'
USA Sara Price (Can-Am), + 1:11'
POR Joao Ferreira (Can-Am), + 1:18'
ECU Sebastián Guayasamin (Can-Am), + 3:43'

T5 Trucks

CZE Martin Macik (Iveco), 54:34'48
CZE Ales Loprais (Praga), + 1:54'
NED Mitchel van der Brink (Iveco), + 4:26'
NED Janus van Kasteren (Iveco), + 5:22'
NED Michiel Becx (Iveco), + 11 h
JPN Teruhito Sugawara (Hino), + 17h

Quads:

ARG Manuel Andújar (Yamaha), 64:16'53
FRA Alexandre Giroud (Yamaha), + 8'
SVK Juraj Varga (Yamaha), + 4:03'
LTU Laisvydas Kancius (Yamaha), + 7:13'
LTU Anastas Kanopkinas (CFMoto), + 49 h

[Mirek]

First victory for our country after 23 years, first double after 36 years and a first stage tripple since probably forever. Yeah! :D

Also great performance by Prokop and his team!

[focus206]

First victory for our country after 23 years, first double after 36 years and a first stage tripple since probably forever. Yeah! :D

Also great performance by Prokop and his team!

Mirek, do you think Macik can be considered a privateer? I know the line is blurred, but after years of works or semi-works Kamaz, MAN, Iveco, Tatra, Hino etc. it would be the first time since 1986 that a privateer truck won. I imagine MM Technology belongs to Macik and I don't see any Iveco branding on his truck, then again his Italian teammates of MM Technology Bellina and Pellegrinelli have big Iveco logos on their trucks. Just for my own curiosity.

[Mirek]

Mirek, do you think Macik can be considered a privateer? I know the line is blurred, but after years of works or semi-works Kamaz, MAN, Iveco, Tatra, Hino etc. it would be the first time since 1986 that a privateer truck won. I imagine MM Technology belongs to Macik and I don't see any Iveco branding on his truck, then again his Italian teammates of MM Technology Bellina and Pellegrinelli have big Iveco logos on their trucks. Just for my own curiosity.

For me he is a privateer. They develop and build the cars fully in house (yes, the MM Technology literally means "Martin Macík", it's their family company). They may get some engineering support from Iveco but I don't know about that. Sure now they are quite a big team because they are building trucks also for others but they are not an Iveco works team. By the way they are building an electric truck too (for certain investor).

[dimviii]

Sébastien Loeb
@SebastienLoeb
·
23h
�� The end of one chapter today and the start of a new one in a few days ��

We would have liked to end the
@BRaidXtreme
adventure with victory but it's with a new podium ��

Thanks to the whole team, to Fabian who was perfect, to
@BFGoodrichTires
and to all our partners ����

[focus206]

Sébastien Loeb
@SebastienLoeb
·
23h
�� The end of one chapter today and the start of a new one in a few days ��

We would have liked to end the
@BRaidXtreme
adventure with victory but it's with a new podium ��

Thanks to the whole team, to Fabian who was perfect, to
@BFGoodrichTires
and to all our partners ����

Second time I hear that Fabian was perfect. To me, Prodrive faced the biggest amount of criticism you can face in this Dakar, with Nasser leaving after his harsh words, Fabian being very angry at another puncture "it's not possible", Seb visibly disappointed and frustrated.
One can only hope they'll design the Dacia better after they gained some experience with the Hunter.