Sebastien Loeb was forced to pull out of the Dakar Rally after a back injury suffered by his co-driver in a disastrous fifth stage won by defending champion Stephane Peterhansel on Wednesday.
As Peterhansel took another important step towards his 14th Dakar title, Loeb's dream of winning his first Dakar was left in tatters after his car twice ran into early sand trouble on the run from San Juan de Marcona to Arequipa in Peru.
The French ace's hopes of adding a Dakar to his nine world rally championship crowns at the third attempt had appeared encouraging after climbing to second in the standings with success on
Tuesday's fourth stage.
But instead, he was left rebooking his flight home after his Peugeot became stuck in the dunes twice, with a truck having to help him out of a sand hole, costing him almost three hours.
Yet, it was an injury suffered by co-driver Daniel Elena —as they descended a dune— that forced Loeb to bring a premature end to his 2018 Dakar 10 days before the finish in Cordoba, Argentina.
"He screams as soon as I go over 30 km/h, I can't see how we can go on like this," explained Loeb, second last year.
"It went badly; the dunes are too soft; we did not see the hole, we hit it hard [...] It's over, Daniel is bad, but he'll be okay; It's so soft; without the [assistance] truck, we wouldn't have got out," Loeb told France Television.
After his fourth stage
win on Tuesday, Loeb was placed seven minutes second to Peterhansel in another Peugeot.
France's 'Mr. Dakar' has won the car title seven times with a further six titles on two wheels, the first coming way back in 1991.
The 52-year-old saw off the Toyotas of Bernhard ten Brinke and Giniel de Villiers to lead his Spanish teammate Carlos Sainz by over half an hour overall.
Third-placed ten Brinke is a massive 1hr 15min adrift.
Honda's Spanish rider Joan Barreda won the motorbike stage with Yamaha's
Adrien van Beveren retaining the overall lead.
Barreda covered the 264-kilometer timed section in three hours 19 minutes 42 seconds to cross the line over 10mins upon Matthias Walkner on a KTM and Kevin Benavides (Honda).
France's van Beveren took fifth to hold a slim one-minute cushion over Benavides, with Walkner 1min 14sec off the pace.
(END) AFP/MVB