Dakar champ Loeb out as Peterhansel leads

NINE-TIME world rally champion Sebastien Loeb withdrew from the Dakar Rally yesterday, while defending champion Stephane Peterhansel stretched his lead after the last full stage in Peru.

Loeb, who won Tuesday’s stage for Peugeot and was second overall, halted 5km into the 266km stage from San Juan de Marcona to Arequipa, the last overnight stop before the rally enters Bolivia and the highaltitude stages.

He lost two hours waiting for assistance before continuing but, with co-driver Daniel Elena in pain from the jolt in the dunes, had to accept defeat.

“The sand was extremely loose. We got stuck once and managed to get going again,” Loeb said before retiring.

“We got to a crest where another car was stuck. We were following Nasser [al-Attiyah] and saw him go over, so we did the same, but I hadn’t realised there was a hole behind the crest. And, bam, we went right into the hole.

“Right now I’m trying to see how my co-driver’s doing: we’re driving really slowly and, as soon as I go over 30km/h he screams inside the car,” the Frenchman said.

Peterhansel, Loeb’s teammate who had been nearly seven minutes clear on Tuesday and is heading for a record 14th Dakar win, took the stage to extend his lead over Spaniard Carlos Sainz to 31 min 16 sec.

Sainz, also in a Peugeot and a double world rally champion, got bogged down in the dunes early on and was 18 minutes behind Peterhansel at the finish.

Dutch driver Bernhard ten Brinke was third in a Toyota, but more than an hour and a quarter off the pace, with Qatari al-Attiyah fourth.