RALLY DAKAR 2023

Victory without disheveled Loeb in an 'Empty Quarter' that is not scary

"Easy stage, without any complications, with some complex dunes but with a lot of plains in between in which we went for a long time at depth," Loeb told MARCA after scoring his fifth stage win on the Dakar 2023, the fourth in a row.

These were not the impressions we expected to hear from the pilots in the first part of the marathon that took place today between Haradh and the Empty Quarter marathon camp. In fact, Loeb prevailed despite taking the tire off once and having to find a suitable place to change the wheel.

However, the 275 kilometers of the eleventh day of Dakar had no more difficulties than a type of dune somewhat different from that of the north of the country, softer and with the sun making it more difficult to read the crests.

Hence, the panorama has been similar to that of the last three days, with Loeb surpassing all those who came out to compete in the stage (basically Ekström, who was third, almost two minutes behind the Frenchman and Guerlain Chicherit, second with the BRX ).

Sebastien Loeb adds his fifth victory in the Dakar 2023(image above)

Al-Attiyah, with the calculator... However, the leader of the general, Nasser Al-Attiyah raised the day in a very different way: "For us it does not make sense to attack like crazy, we wanted to get here without problems and, In fact, we won't have much work now with the car. Today was easy if you didn't have to push, but we'll see tomorrow..." Ekström also calculated half an hour of revisions at most in the Audi, another sign of the inconsequentiality of the day.

The 6:42 lost with Loeb mean nothing for the Qatari... and neither for the interests of the Frenchman, who has barely cut 6:12 on Lucas Moraes (Toyota), the revelation of the category that clings to second place, although each time with less advantage (and just over 10 minutes). Loeb and his co-driver were hoping for a more selective day today to have had a bigger bite of the overall.

Provisional classification of stage 11 of the Dakar 2023 in cars:

1. Sebastien Loeb/Fabian Lurquin (BRX) 2h 56:12

2. Guerlain Chicherit/Alex Winocq (BRX) at 2:16

3. Mattias Ekstrom/Emil Bergkvist (Audi) at 2:26

3. Lucas Moraes/Timo Gottschalk) at 6:12

4. Nasser Al-Attiyah/Mathieu Baumel (Toyota) at 6:42

...

6. Hen Lategan/Bred Cummings (Toyota) at 7:22

11. Kuba Przygonsky/Armand Monleón (Mini) at 11:28

12. Juan Yacopini/Dani Oliveras (Toyota) at 14:38

27. Carlos Checa/Dani Sola (Astara) at 42:53

35. Laia Sanz/Maurizio Gerini (Astara) at 1h 10:13

44. Isidre Esteve/Txema Villalobos (Toyota) at 3h 26:50

Author: Enrique Naranjo