Sébastien Loeb continues his comeback: the Frenchman took his fifth consecutive stage victory - the sixth in the Dakar rally reserved for cars - in Saudi Arabia, and thus 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 kilometres, partly between mountain ranges of dunes, Loeb prevailed with a 3'19" lead over the Swede Mattias Ekstrom, the only representative in the race of the three hybrid Audis entered in this 45th edition of the iconic race.
Toyota driver Nasser Al-Attiyah, a four-time Dakar winner, took third place, 3'31" behind Loeb. With five consecutive victories, Loeb equals Ari Vatanen's record set in 1989 at the wheel of a Peugeot 405 T16. In the provisional general classification, two days after Sunday's arrival in Dammam, Al-Attiyah consolidates first place, while Loeb chases after with a delay of 1h27". The Brazilian Lucas Moraes (Toyota), in the first Dakar Rally , lost time today after stopping and was forced to get off the third step of the podium. He is now 2' behind Loeb. The 45th edition of the Rally-raid started on 31 December 2022 from the shores of the Red Sea, in the near Yanbu, for a challenge of two weeks and more than 8,000 kilometres.