2024 Dakar Rally: Loeb’s Dakar pursuit ends with Stage 11 heartbreak

Sébastien Loeb‘s hunt for his first Dakar Rally win will have to continue for another year. Despite chasing down and eventually closing in on leader Carlos Sainz, disaster struck on the penultimate day when his Prodrive Hunter broke its right-front triangle and suffered five punctured tyres, dropping him to a paltry thirty-sixth in Ultimate and over an hour back of Sainz in the overall.

The A-arm failure occurred 132 kilometres into Stage #11, leaving him stranded for an hour until fellow Prodrive ally Zi Yungang stopped to provide assistance. Loeb suffered more issues such as flat tyres—which pervaded much of the field as the stage took place on rocky terrain—and finished a dismal 1:28:15 behind winner Guerlain Chicherit. To add insult to injury, Loeb also received a one-minute penalty for not having his seatbelts properly fastened shortly after rejoining the race.

Loeb now sits third overall, trailing Sainz by 1:36:02 after being overtaken by Guillaume de Mévius. De Mévius finished the stage runner-up to his team-mate Chicherit, and has a ten-minute gap on Loeb. Of course, he is also too far back to catch Sainz, who simply needs to complete the final stage on Friday to secure his fifth Dakar Rally.

“Still 170 kilometres to go. I know very well that in this rally especially, you need to cross the finish and this is what we are going to try,” said Sainz. “Concentrating tomorrow and have a good look in the car because the stage was super, super rough, and see if we can finish tomorrow.”

While the four-wheel overall is all but wrapped up, the battle has only tightened up in the two-wheel realm as Ross Branch dominated the day to score his second stage win. Rival Ricky Brabec placed second but just thirty-two seconds behind Branch, minimising the stage’s impact on the overall to barely half a minute.

Branch now trails Brabec by 10:22, meaning he will need to either or both set screamers of a time in Stage #12 while Brabec has an off day. Brabec’s Honda team-mate Adrien Van Beveren is the only other rider with a sliver of hope as he sits 14:31 back.

“I had a lot of fun right from the start until the finish,” Branch commented. “I really enjoyed myself out there. The bike was going amazing and I made no mistakes today, which is quite important to stay calm in the race. The leader of the race has a significant lead over me, but I’m really happy with where I am at the moment, and I’m looking forward to the last day tomorrow.”

The biggest bike overall development comes in Rally2, where Romain Dumontier has lost the lead to Harith Noah after finishing ten minutes behind him on Thursday. Noah, the only remaining Sherco factory rider after Rui Gonçalves retired with a shoulder injury from a crash just after the start, placed second to leapfrog the defending winner, and holds a six-minute advantage. Dumontier was fifth, falling at the beginning of the stage and still somewhat off the pace after breaking his swingarm axle the previous day.

Alexandre Giroud‘s goal of three-peating in Quad is in a similar pickle to Branch’s as he held off Manuel Andújar for the stage win, but only by thirty-seven seconds which barely made a dent in the overall. Andújar now leads by 8:14.

Jérôme de Sadeleer defeated Gerard Farrés for the SSV stage win by a mere two seconds but has an opportunity to get by Xavier de Soultrait for the outright win tomorow. De Soultrait finished the day in fourth but he and Sébastien Loeb Racing team-mate Florent Vayssade face penalties for not allowing Sara Price to overtake them despite signalling she was faster. Nonetheless, the margin between de Soultrait and de Sadeleer is 2:49.

Cristina Gutiérrez will need a successful Hail Mary pass on Friday as the only Challenger car within half an hour of leader Mitch Guthrie. Meanwhile, Aleš Loprais won the stage in Truck but is effectively out of contention with Martin Macík Jr. over two hours ahead; interestingly, Macík and Noah both lead their classes with identical times of five hours, thirty-one minutes, forty-five seconds.

Dania Akeel retired from the stage with a broken gearbox after leading Challenger to start the day. Likewise, the Ultimate of Mathieu Serradori led his class before he and co-driver Loïc Minaudier stopped to help Oran O’Kelly navigate through rocky terrain, only for their Century to lost its front triangle which broke off the right-front wheel; team-mate Brian Baragwanath towed them to the end.

Stage #11 winners

Class	Number	Competitor	Team	Time
Ultimate (T1)	211	Guerlain Chicherit	Overdrive Racing	4:43:00
Stock (T2)	501	Ronald Basso*	Team Land Cruiser Toyota Auto Body	7:21:02
Challenger (T3)	312	Nicolás Cavigliasso	Wevers Sport	5:19:13
SSV (T4)	420	Jérôme de Sadeleer*	MMP Compétition	5:21:36
Truck (T5)	602	Aleš Loprais*	InstaForex Loprais Praga Team	5:18:50
RallyGP	46	Ross Branch	Hero MotoSports	4:51:57
Rally2	21	Bradley Cox	BAS World KTM Racing Team	5:00:02
Malle Moto	34	Emanuel Gyenes*	Autonet Motorcycle Team	5:38:40
Quad	172	Alexandre Giroud	Drag’on Raly Team	6:13:57
Classic	702	Lorenzo Traglio*	Tecnosport	9 points
Mission 1000	1030	Jordi Juvanteny*	KH7-Ecovergy Team	20 points

* – Not competing in World Rally-Raid Championship

Leaders after Stage #11

Class	Number	Competitor	Team	Time
Ultimate (T1)	204	Carlos Sainz	Team Audi Sport	46:23:47
Stock (T2)	500	Akira Miura*	Team Land Cruiser Toyota Auto Body	76:06:52
Challenger (T3)	303	Mitch Guthrie	Red Bull Off-Road Junior Team	51:38:06
SSV (T4)	411	Xavier de Soultrait*	Sébastien Loeb Racing	54:35:11
Truck (T5)	601	Martin Macík Jr.*	MM Technology	52:31:45
RallyGP	9	Ricky Brabec	Monster Energy Honda Rally Team	49:37:57
Rally2	20	Harith Noah*	Sherco TVS Rally Factory Team	52:31:45
Malle Moto	96	Tobias Ebster	Kini Rally Racing Team	56:18:46
Quad	174	Manuel Andújar	7240 Team	62:11:24
Classic	768	Carlos Santaolalla*	Factory Tub	805 points
Mission 1000	1030	Jordi Juvanteny*	KH7-Ecovergy Team	145 points