Sebastien Loeb was thwarted in his bid to give Bahrain Raid Xtreme a memorable victory in the Rallye du Maroc when he ran out of luck after a brilliant surge yesterday in the final round of the World Rally-Raid Championship.
Partnered by Fabian Lurquin in his BRX Prodrive Hunter, Loeb set a scorching pace to lead the rally’s penultimate stage well past the half way point, in the process taking a remarkable 5 minutes 52 seconds off Nasser Al Attiyah, to move within 29 seconds of the Qatari’s overall lead.
With a stage win and another outright rally success in his sights, the challenge of the nine-time World Rally Champion ended when his car slid into a ditch after 230km. More drama followed when Al Attiyah’s Toyota stopped in the dunes, leaving the championship leader and defending champion trying to repair the car with co-driver Mathieu Baumel 11km from the finish.
Stéphane Peterhansel in an Audi won the 343km stage from Zagora to Merzouga from Orly Terranova and Bernardo Graue in the other BRX Prodrive Hunter, who continued their recovery from a second stage suspension problem with a superb drive to clock the second best time.
Fifth place on the day was enough to establish Saudi Arabia’s Yazeed Al Rajhi in a Toyota as the new rally leader, and he goes into today’s final leg holding a 3 minutes 49 seconds advantage over Peterhansel.
After podium finishes on the first three days, Loeb and the Prodive Hunter were in their element on the most beautiful, varied and difficult stage of the rally, winding through camel grass for 10km before a rocky section and a finish among the dunes of Merzouga.
The seemingly impossible mission to wipe out Al Attiyah’s 6 minutes 16 seconds overnight had become a probability at the halfway point, before the rugged Moroccan desert terrain had its say.
The other major casualty on the day was Spain’s Carlos Sainz, who came to a complete standstill in the dunes soon after Al Attiyah’s problem, while leading the stage.
The rally reaches its conclusion this afternoon following a 152km stage starting and finishing in Merzouga.