Frenchman Sébastien Loeb continues his comeback by winning a fifth consecutive stage victory on Friday, the sixth in the Dakar rally in Saudi Arabia, and climbs to the second step of the podium.
With his co-driver Fabian Lurquin at the wheel of their Prodrive Hunter, they dominated the end of the marathon stage in the Rub Al-Khali desert on the border with Oman. At the end of 376 km partly in the mountain ranges of dunes, Loeb clocked in with a 3 min and 19 sec lead over the Swede Mattias Ekstrom, the only representative in the race of the three hybrid Audis entered for this 45th edition of the iconic rally-raid. Toyota driver Nasser Al-Attiyah, four-time Dakar winner, continued to temper and took third place, 3 minutes and 31 seconds behind Loeb, according to provisional results. With his five consecutive victories, Loeb equals Ari Vatanen’s record achieved in 1989 at the wheel of his Peugeot 405 T16.
In the provisional general classification, two days before the finish in Dammam on Sunday, Al-Attiyah consolidates its first place. Loeb is 1 hour and 27 minutes behind him. The Brazilian Lucas Moraes (Toyota) for whom this is the first Dakar rally, lost some time on Friday after stopping, and had to go down to the third step of the podium. He is now 2 minutes behind Loeb. The 45 edition of the rally-raid started on December 31 from the shores of the Red Sea near Yanbu, for a two-week stage and more than 8,000 km.
