RALLY DAKAR 2023

Loeb achieves a legendary record

Sebastien Loeb has forever buried a record held by Ari Vatanen, a true Dakar legend. The Frenchman has racked up six stage victories, one after the other, in a streak never seen before... in the car category (because let's remember that last year Seth Quintero had 10 in a row in the T3 class).

It is true that, in both cases, these historical records are conditioned by the circumstances. Loeb has not had to fight his main enemy, Nasser Al-Attiyah, who has been in conservative mode since Carlos Sainz's withdrawal.

The Qatari was radiant at the finish line, with second place in the special giving him some good points for the World Championship and the almost complete assurance that he will reissue his Dakar title: "I am very happy with the performance of all , from the Toyota team, from BF Goodrich... It has been a great race for us and now we just have to finish it off. I said that I was going to defend my title and everything went quite well", he acknowledged.

Loeb, without rival... Today we had another example of this. Loeb has been riding his BRX Hunter, which is performing much better in the dunes than on the brittle ground of the first week. But not so much as to think that the 5:28 that the Frenchman has given Al-Attiyah in just 154 kilometers reflect the reality of the race.

"A difficult day, especially due to the low visibility in some places, although I did very well. The dunes were difficult to pass because of how soft they were and we also had a moment of stress at a waypoint, in which the traces of the motorcycles were in another area, but luckily my co-driver was right".

Ekström and his Audi were also unable to face the new Dakar record holder who, in addition to winning the stage, bagging the record and the maximum possible points for the W2RC, also opened up more of a gap over Lucas Moraes (Toytoa) to virtually secure the Second place on the final podium in the Dakar 2023.

Equals a record... from Sainz...With the seven victories that Loeb has amassed in this Dakar 2023, the Frenchman (who has already accumulated 23 in his entire career in the most famous rally-raid in the world) is tied with another legendary driver, Carlos Sainz.

The Spaniard won seven of the 13 stages that made up the 2011 Dakar (at that time the Matador was running with Volkswagen). Tomorrow Loeb will also be able to destroy that record... although perhaps, this time, he won't risk it so as not to jeopardize everything he has achieved in this impeccable second week.

Provisional classification of stage 13 of the Dakar 2023 in cars:

1. Sebastien Loeb/Fabian Lurquin (BRX) 2h 26:17

2. Nasser Al-Attiyah/Mathieu Baumel (Toyota) at 5:28

3. Mattias Ekstrom/Emil Bergkvist (Audi) at 6:31

4. Eryk Goczal/Oriol Mena (Can-AM T4) at 8:56

5. Henk Lategan/Brett Cummings (Toyota) at 9:27

...

7. Jakub Przygonski/Armand Monleón (Mini) at 11:31

8. Lucas Moraes/Timo Gottschalk (Toyota) at 12:07

11. Juan Yacopini/Dani Oliveras (Toyota) at 13:17

39. Laia Sanz/Maurizio Gerini (Astara) at 27:02

40. Isidre Esteve/Txema Villalobos (Toyota) at 27:09

44. Carlos Checa/Marc Sola (Astara) at 28:19

by Enrique Naranjo