It is the end of a long ordeal. After suffering martyrdom in the Saudi desert, Sébastien Loeb and Daniel Elena quit the Dakar on Monday during the 8th stage. For his return to competition this year after two podiums (2nd in 2017 and 3rd in 2019), Sébastien Loeb had a series of mechanical problems and punctures throughout the 43rd edition of the Dakar at the wheel of a new 4X4 built by the team. British Prodrive.
During the 6th stage, the nine-time world champion in WRC rally had completed the night stage (arriving at the bivouac at 3 am on Saturday) and released more than ten hours into the adventure. Sunday, the day after the rest day, he had broken a hub of the Hunter BRX towards Sakaka. Having reached the marathon bivouac, Loeb and Elena were forced to perform a few hours of mechanics. The two accomplices occupied this Monday morning the 42nd place in the general classification with 13 and a half hours behind the leader Stéphane Peterhansel.
Set off again this Monday morning without brakes and with only one spare tire, Loeb and Elena got stuck at the 83rd km between Sakaka and Neom after a second puncture. Repaired after several hours of waiting, the Alsatian left the special at the end of the day. The pilot then signified his abandonment to his team, who passed the information on to the race marshals. It ended with the link road and was to reach the Neom bivouac in the evening.
