RALLY DAKAR 2023

Loeb's "perfect stage"

Sebastien Loeb (BRX) is putting together a record-breaking Dakar finish. The Frenchman has chained his fifth consecutive partial victory (sixth in total) and already has half the victories of the entire rally. Today the Prodrive driver overtook Ekström's Audi and Nasser Al-Attiyah's Toyota in more than three minutes.

He is already second overall...Again it didn't matter that the nine-time WRC champion led the way on the day. The stage had the same script as yesterday's, combining large dunes with wide flat terrain that made it less difficult for the leading riders. Neither navigation, nor mechanics, nor hooked in the sand...

"It was a perfect stage, with no mistakes and I was pushing all the time. I'm trying everything to get that second place. But the Dakar isn't done until the end, it's a very hard and long race and only the last day will be decided", explained the winner of the twelfth day of Dakar.

Al-Attiyah, no pressure...Nasser Al-Attiyah set a little more pace today to get into third position and score points for the W2RC World Championship and was barely 12 seconds behind Ekström's second position. The Qatari has saved one of the key phases of the race, the marathon, without any problem, and now he simply has to spend tomorrow to add five

Sebastien Loeb (BRX) is putting together a record-breaking Dakar finish. The Frenchman has chained his fifth consecutive partial victory (sixth in total) and already has half the victories of the entire rally. Today the Prodrive driver overtook Ekström's Audi and Nasser Al-Attiyah's Toyota in more than three minutes.

He's already second overall... Again it didn't matter that the nine-time WRC champion was the one leading the way on the day. The stage had the same script as yesterday's, combining large dunes with wide flat terrain that made it less difficult for the leading riders. Neither navigation, nor mechanics, nor hooked in the sand...

"It was a perfect stage, with no mistakes and I was pushing all the time. I'm trying everything to get that second place. But the Dakar isn't done until the end, it's a very hard and long race and only the last day will be decided", explained the winner of the twelfth day of Dakar.

Al-Attiyah, no pressure...Nasser Al-Attiyah set a little more pace today to get into third position and score points for the W2RC World Championship and was barely 12 seconds behind Ekström's second position. The Qatari has saved one of the key phases of the race, the marathon, without any problem, and now he just has to spend tomorrow to add five Dakars.

The one who says goodbye to any chance of getting on the 2023 Dakar podium is the South African Henk Lategan (Toyota), fourth overall... until today. The youngest member of the official Toyota Gazoo Racing team left 48 minutes in the finish line today.

Provisional classification of stage 12 of the Dakar 2023 in cars

1. Sebastien Loeb/Fabian Lurquin (BRX) 1h 56:21

2. Mattias Ekstrom/Emil Bergkvist (Audi) at 3:19

3. Nasser Al-Attiyah/Mathieu Baumel (Toyota) at 3:31

4. Guerlain Chicherit/Alex Winocq (BRX) at 7:13

5. Kuba Przygonsky/Armand Monleón (Mini) at 8:02

...

7. Martin Prokop/Viktor Chytka (Ford) at 9:58

10. Lucas Moraes/Timo Gottschalk) at 11:38

11. Juan Yacopini/Dani Oliveras (Toyota) at 12:53

25. Isidre Esteve/Txema Villalobos (Toyota) at 24:01

49. Laia Sanz/Maurizio Gerini (Astara) at 34:58

106. Carlos Checa/Marc Sola (Astara) at 1h 52:01

Author: Enrique Naranjo