Sébastien Loeb may have lost the Dakar 2025: in addition to several rollovers, the Frenchman has accumulated a lot of delay

Sébastien Loeb a peut-être perdu trop de temps. – Jennifer Lindini

Injured, French driver Sébastien Loeb struggled to complete the third stage of the Dakar Rally on Tuesday 7 January, finishing 1 hour behind schedule, a setback that should cost him his dream of winning the rally-raid this year.

At kilometre 12 of the 327 of the day's special between Bisha and Al Henakiyah, Sébastien Loeb's Dacia went across the road after a bad bounce and rolled over several impressive times, seriously damaging the vehicle.

The 50-year-old Frenchman and his Belgian co-driver Fabian Lurquin set off again after a five-minute stop and repairs, but the consequences of the accident were felt for the rest of the race. “We were able to continue but suddenly the steering rod broke, because of the rollover I think […] Then we had a problem with the engine overheating. We tried to finish the stage. We got there but in the end we lost an hour”, he regretted at the finish of the special.

Sébastien Loeb finished the course in 4h 20'12'', more than an hour after the winner of the day, the young South African Saood Variawa. This accident occurs the day after the withdrawal of the defending champion Carlos Sainz, who had to give up due to the damage to his roll bar after a roll of his Ford Raptor during the “48h chrono”.

A title that eludes Loeb

Nine-time rally world champion Sébastien Loeb is still racing, for his ninth participation, after a first title on the Dakar, so often approached but never won (3rd in 2019 and 2024, 2nd in 2017, 2022 and 2023).

Due to rain on the course, the Dakar rally has shortened the route of the third special between Bisha and Al Henakiyah to 327 km, compared to the initial 496 km. The Dakar Rally, currently dominated by South African Henk Lategan in cars and Australian Daniel Sanders on motorbikes, ends on January 17 in the Empty Quarter desert.