Sébastien Loeb wins to storm the Dakar podium but Nasser Al-Attiyah has everything under control
Published by The team in News the 10/01/2023 at 15:38
The tricks a Dakar can do. Sébastien Loeb seemed out of whack and totally disconnected from any chance of a good result on this Dakar after the disaster of his first stages, and here he is already on the podiums and seriously threatening to reach second position.
Loeb won on the ninth stage of the Dakar , leading a historic Prodrive hat-trick and cutting a good cut from a Nasser Al-Attiyah who is only worried about getting into trouble. The French driver is third overall in the Dakar, and second in less than 20 minutes.
Accident for Carlos Sainz, who almost abandoned the Dakar
The ninth stage of this Dakar promises to be historic for Prodrive . Not just because Loeb won, but because they took the top three spots in the standings. Vaidotas Zala was second, 3:07 behind the Frenchman, while Guerlain Chicherit was third fastest, 4:18 behind Loeb.
And it is that Nasser Al-Attiyah is already off the hook. The Qatari driver limited himself to finishing the stage in seventh position, more than eleven minutes from Loeb. Al-Attiyah is already close to his fifth Dakar , as he is one hour and twenty minutes ahead of his first pursuer, the Brazilian Lucas Moraes, also from Toyota.
Thus, the Toyotas hardly appeared in this ninth stage. Fourth position went to the surviving Audi, Mattias Ekström , while the first Toyota went to Romain Dumas, fifth, followed by Jakub Przygonski's MINI. Al-Attiyah finished eighth, even behind Giniel de Villiers.
The unfortunate protagonist of the day is again Carlos Sainz, who was involved in another accident at the start of the stage and had to be picked up by helicopter. The Madrid native continues to try to repair his car to reach the finish line, continue on the Dakar and fight for one of the remaining stage victories.
The proof that everything is going well for Al-Attiyah in this Dakar is that the person who was chasing him before this stage, his young teammate Henk Lategan, who was already more than an hour away, had no nothing more at the start of the special, declaring goodbye to all his options and opening the doors of the podium to Loeb.
Yazeed Al-Rajhi, another of the usual competitors on each stage, had to stop to assist Lategan, which gave him even more time. In short, only a miracle could prevent Al-Attiyah from winning his fifth Dakar this Sunday . Just in case, Loeb is already ready with the rod waiting for an error.
Results Etapa 9 Rally Dakar 2023
General classification Dakar 2023
