The start of the second week of Dakar 2024 has kicked off with Sébastien Loeb and Fabian Lurquin taking their Bahrain Raid Xtreme Prodrive Hunter to stage victory over the 483 kms into Al Duwadimi. Their stunning run today has taken them from third in the overall standings, 29 minutes and 30 seconds back this morning, to second overall and 19 minutes off the top. It’s their third stage win of this year’s rally but there are still five stages and 1900 kilometres of the world’s toughest rallying and navigation still to go.
Following the rest day in Riyadh yesterday, everyone left early for the longest day of the huge adventure that is the Dakar 2024. As well as the stage itself, the crews covered 873 kilometres in total with the road sections before and after the stage, a distance that would essentially take them from the top to the bottom of France in a day.
There were only a few dunes today that covered 47 kilometres right in the middle of the test that was predominantly made up of dry river beds and off piste running over some of the area that made up the third stage last week, but the Prodrive Hunter took it all in it’s stride as the BRX team took the stage victory. Statistically this is Loeb’s 26th Dakar stage victory to lift him to three behind the great Jacky Ickx.
The Dakar rests at the Al Duwadimi bivouac tonight where the rally last visited at the end of stage two a week ago before tomorrow heading up to H’ail that’s a regular part of the Saudi Dakar. The tracks will be full of stones and traps set by the organisers, for this Dakar is far from over.
Sébastien Loeb - BRX
“That was a really good day today that came out well for us. It was not easy though as it was difficult with the navigation and a bit complicated with a bit of everything; some canyons, some dunes, tracks and so on but we stayed concentrated on the road book. We did make a couple of mistakes here and there with direction but overall we were able to correct all those mistakes very quickly to enable us to push. A good day.”
Gus Beteli, BRX Team Principal
“That was a perfect day today. Seb and Fabian did an amazing job over 480kms with difficult navigation and a variety of terrain and they managed really well to keep the pressure on and get some time back on the lead. We are second overall now with under 20 minutes back with five stages to go so we will be pushing to the end.”
Stage 7 Result
Riyadh - Al Duwadimi, 483kms stage, 873kms total
1st Loeb/Lurquin Bahrain Raid Xtreme Prodrive Hunter
Overall Standings
2nd Loeb/Lurquin Bahrain Raid Xtreme Prodrive Hunter +19m00s
GALLERY
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For more information please contact:
Toby Moody
BRX Media Manager
e: toby.moody@bahrainraidxtreme.com
t: +44 7860 145035
NOTES TO EDITORS
About Bahrain Raid Xtreme
A joint partnership between the Bahrain Mumtalakat Holding Company (Mumtalakat), the sovereign wealth fund of the Kingdom of Bahrain, and Prodrive the British motorsport and engineering group formed the joint venture Prodrive International in 2020. Building on Prodrive’s extensive experience in developing championship winning race and rally cars, its aim is to design and manufacture cars to compete in the Dakar Rally and World Rally Raid Championship. BRX achieved the best finishing position, 5th with Nani Roma on debut in 2021, and 2nd with Sebastien Loeb in both 2022 and 2023. Its Hunter cars run Prodrive EcoPower, a sustainable fuel made from agricultural waste. The fuel reduces CO2 emissions by 80% compared to standard fuel.
About Prodrive
Prodrive is one of the world’s largest and most successful motorsport and technology businesses. Over 500 staff are employed across its Banbury headquarters and composites manufacturing facility in Milton Keynes. While the company is perhaps best known for motorsport, today it is just one part of an organisation that in the last decade has diversified to become a technology business working in a range of sectors and providing a range of services. Within the Prodrive Group, there are four distinct but interconnected business areas: Motorsport, operating race and rally programmes for vehicle manufacturers and global brands; Advanced Technology, providing innovative technology for the automotive, aerospace, defence, and marine sectors; Composites, developing lightweight composite components for the automotive, aerospace and marine sectors; and Brand& developing bespoke clothing and accessories for leading brands.