The 48-year-old Prodrive star is in second spot overall – the same position as he filled last year – 1 hour and 21 minutes behind al-Attiyah. “It’s great, even though the record was not necessarily my goal,” said Loeb.
“I especially wanted to cement my second place. The gap was small and I eased into my pace from the start of the dunes, so I wasn’t going to change everything. I feel good on sand, I can set a strong pace, I’m confident, I can drive aggressively while watching out for broken dunes. It’s cool.”
In contrast to Loeb setting the Saudi dunes ablaze, al-Attiyah has settled for a safety first strategy having established a commanding lead going into the final week of competition.
The 52-year-old lost just 5min 38sec to Loeb in yesterday’s stage. “What is really important to me is winning the Dakar,” said al-Attiyah. “The race was great for us, we just have to bring the title home now.”
Al-Attiyah’s Toyota team-mate, Brazilian Lucas Moraes fills out the podium. He holds a comfortable advantage of over an hour from another Toyota driver South African Giniel de Villiers.
The car crown may appear done and dusted but it is far from the case in the motorbike category. Australia’s two-time motorbike champion Toby Price holds a wafer thin advantage following closest rival Kevin Benavides’s victory in yesterday’s stage.
The 35-year-old KTM rider holds a lead of just 12 seconds over the Argentinian. Price maintained first spot despite a fall and a navigation error in the stage. “I made one little mistake around 130,” he said. “We went too far right and I took a fall while looking at the top of a dune. At this stage here, you need to push to keep the lead. I’m happy, I’ve put a 100 percent in every day.”
American Skyler Howes lies in third spot 1min 31secs adrift of 2016 and 2019 champion Price. Benavides, who won the title in 2021, was awarded the stage win after having more than 23 minutes restored to him. This was the time he took to aid a stricken rival Matthias Walkner at the outset of the stage.
The late revision dashed the cup of victory from South African amateur and debutant Michael Docherty, who had been hoisted to the top of the stage standings after Benavides’s younger brother Luciano was penalised a minute for speeding.
Howes’s compatriot Mason Klein’s rollercoaster race – mixing impressive performances with several tumbles – came to a premature end. The KTM rider was unable to start the stage due to medical reasons according to race organisers Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO). Today’s final stage is a 417km run – including a 136km special – to Dammam bringing to a close two weeks of combat conducted over 8,000km.
Overall Standings after Stage 13
1. Nasser al-Attiyah/Mathieu Baumel (Toyota Gazoo Racing) 43h48m10s
2. Sebastien Loeb/Fabian Lurquin (Bahrain Raid Xtreme) +1h21m42s
3. Lucas Moraes/Timo Gottschalk (Overdrive Racing) +1h35m50s
4. Giniel de Villiers/Dennis Murphy (Toyota Gazoo Racing) +2h30m44s
5. Henk Lategan/Brett Cummings (Toyota Gazoo Racing) +2h38m20s
6. Martin Prokop/Viktor Chytka (Orlen Benzima Team) +3h39m13s
7. Juan Cruz Yacopini/Dani Oliveras Carreras (Overdrive Racing) 4h25m42s
8. Wei Han/Ma Li (Hanwei Motorsport Team) +4h26m01s
9. Mathieu Serradori/Loïc Minaudier (Century Factory Racing Team) +4h28m31s
10. Sebastian Halpern/Bernardo Graue (X-Raid Mini JCW Team) +4h46m26s
Dakar Rally to remain in Saudi Arabia, say organisers
Al Hofuf, Saudi Arabia: Saudi Arabia will continue to be the home of the Dakar Rally for the next few years with race director David Castera telling AFP “we still have so many deserts to explore”.Castera was speaking after yesterday’s penultimate stage with Qatari Nasser al-Attiyah poised for his fifth title. “I’m very happy we’re staying here, with so many deserts still to explore and with this country’s enormous potential,” he said.
Motorsport’s toughest endurance test moved to the conservative kingdom in 2020 after a spell in South America on an initial 10-year contract. Dakar organisers ASO announced the switch in 2019 saying a new chapter of the gruelling race’s history would be written in the “mysterious and vast deserts” of the land.
Castera confirmed a clause in the Saudi deal to pull out after five years would not be taken up. Saudi Arabia has invested heavily in attracting high profile sporting events including tennis, golf and Formula One to its shores and is preparing a joint bid to host the 2030 World Cup. And last month Cristiano Ronaldo signed for Saudi side Al Nassr in a deal worth 200mn euros.
