Dakar 2024 – Stage 11: Sébastien Loeb loses all hope of victory, Carlos Sainz goes for the title
Victim of a broken front-right suspension triangle, the non-two-time world rally champion will not win this year's Dakar. On the road to Yanbu, Guerlain Chicherit claimed his second consecutive stage victory.
The eighth will therefore still not be the right one. Since 2016 and his first appearance on the Dakar tracks, Sébastien Loeb has been chasing that first victory in the world’s largest rally-raid to complete an already impressive resume. As the runner-up to Carlos Sainz before this penultimate stage that took the competitors from Alula to Yanbu over 587 kilometers (420 of which were special stages), the Alsatian saw his dreams shatter against the Saudi rocky terrain.
While battling for the stage victory, Sébastien Loeb and his co-driver Fabian Lurquin ripped off the right-front suspension triangle of their Hunter at low speed in a section where many traps were to be avoided. Assisted by another crew from the Prodrive team, the Franco-Belgian duo were able to resume after over an hour of immobilization. At the finish, Loeb and Lurquin concede nearly an hour and thirty minutes to the day’s winner and lose their second place in the overall classification to the pair Guillaume De Mevius/Xavier Panseri.
Because it is indeed the Toyota Overdrive drivers who have stood out today. In addition to climbing onto the podium behind Carlos Sainz, who remains the rally leader on the eve of the finish, De Mevius and Panseri also finished second in the stage behind their teammate Guerlain Chicherit. Already a winner yesterday, the Frenchman, accompanied by Alex Winocq, is having a very strong end to the rally. This seventh stage victory in a Dakar allows him to move up to fourth place overall.
Another big victim of the day, Lucas Moraes. The Brazilian, aiming for a second consecutive podium finish, encountered a mechanical issue with his Hilux T1+ which caused him to lose over two hours and dropped him to ninth place in the overall standings.
With an hour and a half lead over his closest pursuer, Carlos Sainz is just a few kilometers away from winning his fourth Dakar. He would equal Ari Vatanen’s number of victories in the car category and become the first driver to win the Dakar with four different manufacturers.
Stage 11 Ranking
| Concurrents | Team | Times / Gaps | |
| 1 | Chicherit / Winocq | Overdrive Racing | 04:43:00 |
| 2 | De Mevius / Panseri | Overdrive Racing | +00:05:02 |
| 3 | Sainz / Cruz | Team Audi Sport | +00:05:35 |
| 4 | Ekström / Bergkvist | Team Audi Sport | +00:09:46 |
| 5 | Variawa / Cazalet | Toyota Gazoo Racing | +00:12:37 |
General ranking
| Concurrents | Team | Times / Gaps | |
| 1 | Sainz / Cruz | Team Audi Sport | 46:23:47 |
| 2 | De Mevius / Panseri | Overdrive Racing | +01:27:06 |
| 3 | Loeb / Lurquin | Bahraïn Raid Xtreme | +01:36:02 |
| 4 | Chicherit / Winocq | Overdrive Racing | +01:42:20 |
| 5 | Prokop / Chytka | Orlen Jipocar Team | +02:17:47 |
