After dropping the best part of an hour behind Al-Attiyah with a mechanical failure and navigational drama in the first week, Loeb mounted a strong comeback in the second half of the rally, setting a series of quick times – including victory in Stage 8 – in a bid to unseat his Qatari rival.
However, the gap to Al-Attiyah ultimately proved too large to overcome and he was forced to settle for second position, missing out on the top spot by 27m46s.
The defeat means that Loeb will have to wait at least another year to clinch a maiden Dakar win, with the Frenchman having never finished higher than second in his six attempts in the last seven years.
But Loeb isn’t too concerned about the final result in 2022, saying he couldn’t have done anything more to close the gap to Al-Attiyah given how closely matched the Toyota was to his Prodrive-built BRX Hunter.
“Given that we were delayed from the start and that there are no big gaps in the stages, from the moment we lost time with our…
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