Frenchman Sebastien Loeb won the ninth stage of the Dakar Rally, a special 358km trek between Riyadh and Haradh, for Bahrain Raid Xtreme on Tuesday while Carlos Sainz's Audi had a major crash.Loeb finished over three minutes ahead of Teltonika Racing's Lithuanian Vaidotas Zala, while GCK Motorsport's French driver Guerlain Chicherit was third as racing resumed after a rest day.
The stage win was the second in a row for nine-times world rally champion Loeb and his third overall in the 2023 Dakar. "It was a good drive.
We got a bit lost in some places, in some, I think, very complicated way points," said Loeb."The lines of the motorbikes were wrong so we had to turn around and to search for them.
But I think it was complicated for the others too because Guerlain Chicherit arrived level with me at that place and then he finished further behind. "We had a good stage.