- Sebastien Loeb and Daniel Elena [Copyright: Dakar]

Sebastien Loeb's 2018 Dakar journey ends after injury to Daniel Elena

The Frenchman believes this was the only chance to add the grueling cross-country rally in his record books.

4y ago

10K

Sebastien Loeb's dream of winning the Dakar Rally may not come into fruition after the nine-time World Rally Champion retired from the event in Stage 5 due to an injury to his longtime co-driver Daniel Elena.

The 43-year-old came into the grueling cross-country rally this year with a 'now or never' intention. The Frenchman believes that this was his last chance to win the Dakar, since he wants to focus on his World Rallycross programme in the future.

The decision for Loeb comes on the back of Peugeot's decision of pulling out from Dakar after this year's event. The French manufacturer had won both of the last two editions courtesy Stephane Peterhansel, while Loeb finished ninth and second respectively.

Loeb had a up and down journey in this year's event, but he fought back to win Stage 4. However, at the start of Stage 5, the Frenchman landed in a hole when he was trying to avoid a rival, who was stuck on top of a sand dune.

A service truck was deployed to pull the Peugeot 3008DKR Maxi out from the hole, which cost them nearly three hours. But the crash injured Elena's tailbone which required treatment when they reached the Arequipa's bivouac.

Explaining the rally-ending crash, Loeb said: "It was a very complicated start; the sand was very loose, the car just wouldn’t climb up the dunes, and we got stuck more or less straight away for 20 minutes or so.

"Then when we got going again, we were able to follow the tracks from everyone else, and that helped a lot. We got to a place where there was another competitor stopped on a crest, and in order not to have to stop while we were climbing I went right to avoid him... but there was a hole just over the crest that we hadn’t seen.

"We hit it hard. There was nothing more we could do but wait for the truck to pull us out. Daniel was in a lot of pain from the impact. We even finished the stage really slowly, in order not to make the pain worse. Given Daniel’s injury, we were left with no option but to retire.”

With a disappointing Dakar in the books, Loeb will move towards his World Rallycross season with Team Peugeot-Hansen which kicks-off in Barcelona during April 14-16 weekend. The Frenchman will also contest three rounds in the WRC with Citroen in Mexico, Spain and France.