Hermosillo, Mexico April 27 (BNA): World Rally Championship leader Sebastien Loeb has had to retire from the Sonora Rally in Mexico after a crash that injured fellow Bahrain Extreme pilot Fabien Lorquin.
Loeb and Lurquin took off first on stage three, in their BRX Prodrive Hunter, quickly reaching a blind corner with a big drop into a dry river outside. With no chance of slowing down in time, the car slammed loose and flipped onto its side.
Lurquin was taken to the local hospital by the event’s medical staff for tests, and x-rays eventually revealed a slight fracture to his right shoulder, meaning he was unable to continue.
It was a huge disappointment for the BRX crew after their emphatic stage win 24 hours earlier, which gave them the lead going into the third round of the championship.
Loeb, who was not injured, said, “We were going beside this dry river, parallel to it, when there was a jump. That was fine, but where we were going to land, the dry river changed course which meant we were going to land in it.”
“I did everything I could to avoid it, but there was no choice and we hit a hard landing on the right side of the car. Even when I was outside and slowing the other cars, they still had almost the same accident as we did.
“It’s a tough day for us in the BRX, but I hope Fabian can get back in shape soon and be back with me in the car when he’s ready.”
The stage was won by Saudi Yazid Al-Rajhi, who passed to new overall leader Nasser Al-Attiyah in 2 minutes 51 seconds, although the win that day may have gone to Guerlain Chicheret and Alex Winock in another Hunter Prodrive, but for a puncture. which dropped them to fourth place.
Prodrive’s other two hunters led by Brazilian brothers Marcos and Christian Baumgart finished the day inside the top ten in their first dune drive, giving them a solid start to build them up to Dakar 2024 in Saudi Arabia.
Chicheret, last year’s Rally Morocco winner, completed the leg to say: “It was a decent stage. Really tough, rough and, at the end, what we expect in a rally raid. So it lived up to expectations with these big holes in places, without warning, where The ground just collapsed.
“The cactus is great too as if you hit someone at high speed it’s a mess. On the stage we had a lot of pace at the start but we had a puncture so we stopped to change that but again it took 30km to get back up to overtake the same car again.”
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