On the day the Dakar caravan mourned the death of Spanish rider Carles Falcón, Sébastien Loeb and his Belgian co-pilot Fabian Lurquin (Hunter) lost valuable time searching for a waypoint. However, they remain combative.
On Sunday, Loeb and Lurquin did another good thing by winning the stage and gaining 10’31” on leader Carlos Sainz. On Monday they lost part of that bonus again. “You have good days and bad days. Today was not as good,” Fabian Lurquin started his explanation. “During the first part there is no problem and we are in the lead for 366 km.”
The second part of the stage was a little more difficult. “We pushed and didn’t feel like making a mistake. And that is precisely when we make a mistake,” says Lurquin. “At some point we came to a point that made us doubt ourselves. We searched fruitlessly for the waypoint a little further along, but we realized it wouldn’t work, so we turned back to the one point that had caused doubt. In addition, we also had a puncture. We lose a total of ten minutes there. Anyway, once we found the waypoint we could continue and eventually finished tenth. But the damage was done.”
Half of Sunday’s gains were lost on Monday. “Sainz is lagging again today. We still have four stages left to make up time. One stage is easy, three others are difficult. And another two of those three are particularly difficult. We know what we have to do. Today was more difficult. Tomorrow we attack again. We will not let go and hope that it will work.”