Dakar 2023: Stage 10 - Loeb & Bahrain Raid Xtreme take fouthr Dakar stage win

A hat trick of Dakar stage victories was completed by Sébastien Loeb/Fabian Lurquin with their Bahrain Raid Xtreme Prodrive Hunter today following the first of the stages that are dominated by big dunes in the Empty Quarter of Saudi Arabia. Starting first on the road the pair scorched ahead with their Prodrive Hunter, taking fastest time at every section on the stage to make it four wins for Loeb so far this year. With Guerlain Chicherit’s GCKMotorsport car taking a stage win earlier in the rally, it now means the Hunter has taken 50% of the stage victories in this 2023 Dakar Rally.

Loeb and Lurquin are currently leading the 2023 World Rally Raid Championship at this point in the rally due to their consistently strong stage finish positions but as is said in the Dakar bivouac daily, ‘There’s a long way to go.’

With the route passing within reach of Bahrain, it was great to see many Bahraini flags and supporters at the stage start, proving this is a growing international sport with a huge following.

Guerlain Chicherit/Alex Winocq started the stage strongly, running well inside the top 10 but finished in 14th position after the driver felt a little ill over the test and therefore decided to take it steady over the remaining kilometres before the marathon stage tomorrow and Friday.

Second yesterday into Haradh, Vaidotas Zala/Paulo Fiuza also had a great start to the stage but 44 kilometres in broke the suspension so is waiting for the service truck to arrive and fix it in order to exit the stage

The bivouac tonight is set in amongst huge dunes in the south eastern part of Saudi Arabia with limited communication to the outside world, almost recreating the atmosphere and spirit of African Dakars before the age of the internet and cell phones.

Tomorrow sees over double the mileage of today before the crews rest 425 kilometres away from the Bahrain Raid Xtreme service team so any repairs on the car will have to be done by the drivers before they return to Shaybah 48 hours from now.

Sebastien Loeb: “That was a very good day to complete three wins together over the last three stages of the rally. The car was good right from the start through big dunes and some amazing scenery but we had no time to look. We almost did not expect to win the stage starting first on the road but we’ll take it anyway so maybe being first on the road is ok for us so we will see tomorrow. What we also did today was to take five minutes to second overall ahead of us so, yeah a very good day.”

Gus Beteli, Team Principal: “Another day and we’ve taken another win! It’s great to see the pace of the car and take the World Rally Raid Championship points for Seb and then see where we are towards the end of this mammoth rally. We’ve got 16 minutes to catch second place which is a target for Seb but after that we can only keep pushing but today has been a very good day at BRX.”

Stage 8. Al Duwadimi to Riyadh. 346 kms

1st. -S. Loeb / F. Lurquin – Prodrive Hunter

14th. - G. Chicherit / A. Winocq – Prodrive Hunter

124th. V. Zala / P. Fiuza – Prodrive Hunter

Source Prodrive / Bahrain Raid Xtreme

DAKAR 11 January 2023 Hits: 1047

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Dakar 2023: Stage 10 - Loeb & Bahrain Raid Xtreme take fouthr Dakar stage win

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Dakar 2023: Stage 10 - Loeb & Bahrain Raid Xtreme take fouthr Dakar stage win

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