It goes without saying that Sebastien Loeb is among the greatest rally drivers in human history, but his luck in the Dakar hasn’t exactly been good. During Tuesday’s third stage Loeb suffered a medium-speed roll in his Dacia Sandrider that scattered parts in all directions. Just like Carlos Sainz the day before, Loeb was able to get the car back on four wheels and moving toward the finish line again, albeit without some vital components onboard. And similar to Sainz, Loeb’s roll structure was deemed too deformed for him to continue. Dacia appealed the decision overnight, but it was denied, and just like that Loeb is out.
Just 14 kilometers into the third stage on Tuesday Loeb bounced out of a rut into a somewhat lazy roll, which scattered the Dacia’s bodywork. The car got going again in relatively short order, but stopped once more with a broken steering arm before reaching the bivouac. Another Dacia behind was carrying spare parts Loeb needed for repairs, which took several minutes to affect. By the close of the stage Loeb had lost any semblance of competitiveness, dropping to 16th on the time tables. Sadly even 16th is now gone as the car was deemed to have a non-compliant rollover structure following the wreck.
With Sainz and Loeb both out in similar fashion after just a handful of stages, and Nasser Al-Attiyah losing a mess of time with a rear wheel bearing failure on Wednesday, the fan favorites are dropping like flies. Toyota is currently running one-two on the road as Henk Lategan leads over Yazeed Al Rajhi. Ford is currently sitting on third with Mattias Ekström in the debut of the factory-supported Raptor rally raid car.
