The Latest Breaking News from Lucas Moraes

Nine-time World Rally champion Loeb led throughout the 417km test between Ha’il and Al-’Ula on Tuesday to take his fourth stage victory of 2024, beating the Audi of Sainz by 4m14s.

Following up on his third stage win at this year’s event, Loeb looked set to carve more time out of Sainz’s overall advantage as he led the Spaniard by three minutes, and nearest rival Ekstrom by one minute, entering the final 100km of the Al Duwadimi to Ha’il stage.

Loeb made a low-key start to Sunday’s 483km test between Riyadh and Al-Duwadimi, but the nine-time World Rally champion was gradually able to make his way to the front, taking his third stage victory of the year with a margin of 7m06s over Toyota’s Lucas Moraes.

Although yet to be officially announced, it is widely believed that Audi will pull the plug on its Dakar programme after the 46-edition of the rally-raid ends next week, having made its debut just three years ago in 2022 with RS Q e-tron.

As the 549km test around Shubaytah resumed on Friday, Loeb sat third in the order behind Audi duo Carlos Sainz Sr and Mattias Ekstrom, with 5m19s to make up and only a third of the distance remaining.

Al-Rajhi dropped out of the fight for victory when he crashed into a dune at the start of the 48-hour chrono stage, suffering severe damage to his Toyota Hilux. 

The Al-Hofuf to Shubaytah Stage 5 covered the shortest special stage distance of this year’s Dakar Rally at 118km, to provide small respite before the two-day marathon stage begins tomorrow, which will see competitors stop on Thursday and camp overnight and resume on Friday.

Prodrive driver Loeb sat a distant ninth in the general classification heading into the fourth stage in Saudi Arabia, having lost a considerable amount of time on the opening day due to punctures and a broken rear tow link - and again on Monday with more tyre troubles.

We 𝗛𝗜𝗧 a motorbike!💥 he came in the opposite direction… 🔃He’s okay and he made it to the finish of the stage. 🤞We’ve had a lot of problems the last 20 kn of the stage… 🎥 Video is coming soon, stay tuned for more. #DakarRally #DakarInSaudi #Dakar2024 #CoronelDakar pic.twitter.com/nyQTHkgwkW— Tim…

Peterhansel had suffered a bruising start to his 35th appearance at the Dakar on Saturday, as a spate of punctures left him 30 minutes off the front. 

The 2024 Dakar Rally will be the fifth successive event to take place entirely in Saudi Arabia, but organiser ASO has laid out a route that will be vastly different to previous years.