Bet won for Sébastien Loeb, winner on Friday of the 6th “48 hours flat” stage of the Dakar-2024 which saw double title holder Nasser Al-Attiyah abandon his hopes of victory while on the motorbike, another Frenchman, Adrien van Beveren, imposed himself. The nine-time world rally champion, who drives for the Prodrive team, had attempted a somewhat crazy tactical move the day before. Deliberately losing nearly 40 minutes to leave far from the leaders on Thursday, in order to be able to gain time from them by following the tracks, without having to open the road in the virgin dunes.
Finally, Loeb won in 7’21″56 ahead of the Spaniard Carlos Sainz (Audi) – who was 2’01 behind and took the lead in the general classification – and the Swede Mattias Ekström (Audi), 10 ’55. Sainz, three-time winner of the event, is 20 minutes ahead of Ekström and 29 minutes ahead of Loeb. After his success in the 4th stage, this is the 2nd stage victory – the 25th in total – during this edition of the Dakar for the Alsatian, still in search of his first final triumph in the most prestigious of rally-raids.
However, the day before, Loeb was only third, behind Sainz, at the end of the first part of the stage, a 780 km loop in the desert with more than 600 km of special stages for motorcycles and nearly 550 km for cars. “The strategy was the right one. It could have been better if we had caught up with the group in front but we managed to win the special, we move up in the general classification“, summed up the former WRC boss.
“It’s going very fast, there are still very good drivers, very good cars, it’s very balanced. We must continue like this“, Loeb emphasized. “There were quite a few breakages, as we might have expected because doing more than 500 kilometers in the dunes we know is hard on the mechanics.“, he added.
Brabec leader in motorcycles
As expected, this dantesque 6th stage has in fact reshuffled the cards and ruined the chances of several favorites. Starting with five-time winner Nasser Al-Attiyah (Prodrive). If the Qatari and his French co-driver Mathieu Baumel, who encountered a mechanical problem in the last 50 kilometers, avoided retirement by finally finishing 2h45 behind Loeb, they will now serve as assistance for their teammate.
Nasser Al-Attiyah and Mathieu Baumel won the 5th stage of the Dakar 2024, on January 10, 2024.
Credit: Getty Images
“We won’t win this year but it will help Sébastien Loeb to stay on the podium, and maybe even try to win on his own.“, indicated Baumel. Thursday, it was the leader at the end of the 5th stage, the Saudi Yazeed Al-Rajhi, who gave up after rolling over several times and seriously damaging his Toyota. Another cursed one: “Mr Dakar” Stéphane Peterhansel – 14 victories including eight in cars – was stranded in the desert at midday on Thursday, victim of a hydraulic failure which prevented him from operating the jack to change a wheel, and which deprived him of power steering on his Audi.
In the motorcycle category, Adrien van Beveren (Honda) scored his fourth stage victory during the Dakar since his first participation in 2016. He won in 7’57″29, 4’13 ahead of Australian Toby Price ( KTM) and 5’2 ahead of the American Ricky Brabec (Honda), new leader in the general classification, ahead of the Botswanan Ross Branch (Hero). Adrien van Beveren, three-time winner of the Le Touquet enduro, occupies third place overall, 9’21 behind Price. The competitors well deserved their only day of rest in the capital of the Saudi kingdom on Saturday before the 7th stage, and its 483 km of specials, which will take them to Al-Duwadimi on Sunday .