Loeb eats into Al-Attiyah’s Dakar lead
RIYADH: France’s nine-time world rally champion Sebastien Loeb made inroads into overall Dakar leader Nasser al-Attiyah’s advantage after finishing third in Monday’s 395km eighth stage from Al Dawadimi to Wadi Ad Dawasir.
Loeb admitted that despite reducing Qatari driver Al-Attiyah’s lead to less than 38 minutes — the event finishes on Jan 14 — it had been a “very stressful day” on a stage won by Sweden’s Mattias Ekstrom in an Audi hybrid vehicle.
“We were going along at a heck of a rhythm and then had a puncture after 28km,” said Loeb.
“We quickly changed the tyre losing less than two minutes.
“We regained our old rhythm till the halfway point when we saw that we had lost our spare wheel and it was the only one we had left, so I was a bit careful at the end, but I think in the end I drove a good stage.”
Al-Attiyah, bidding for a fourth win in the race, said it had been a nervewracking drive.
“For 350km we had one puncture and then we only had front-wheel drive because we broke the rear,” he said.
“I was really scared all the way. On the last part I said, ‘I don’t care, on the last 50 kilometres I will try to push a little bit.’
“But it was not easy with just the front-wheel drive. I’m really lucky to be here.”
The 51-year-old Qatari added even with his sizeable lead he was far from assuming he had the title in the bag.
“The Dakar is never finished, you know? We’ll try to respect the Dakar,” he said. “The Dakar is the Dakar.”
The motorbike section was far tighter with Britain’s 2017 champion Sam Sunderland regaining the overall lead after winning the stage on his KTM bike.
The 32-year-old Dubai-based rider led Austria’s world champion Mattias Walkner by 3min 45sec though less than six minutes covers the top four.
“It looks like the race is really close this year and it’s cool for everybody at home watching,” said Sunderland.
“It’s difficult for us as riders, it’s a bit like an emotional rollercoaster.”