Loeb: Dakar hopes 'finished' after crash

Sebastien Loeb says his quest to win the Dakar Rally on debut is "finished after rolling during the eighth stage.

The nine-time WRC champion started Monday's running at the top of the standings, but finished it in eighth place after losing more than one hour.

DAILY REPORT: Al-Attiyah wins for Mini, Loeb crashes and loses lead

Loeb, who had led at the end of five of the first seven days of competition, said his rollover was "frustrating" and that there was no way back.

"It's finished for overall victory," he said. "I still have to take the experience. We came here to get experience first and foremost. Finally we were leading the first week. Now it's not as nice as we expected.

"It was only 10 kilometers from the end of the stage. It's a bit frustrating, but that's life, so we have to continue now."

Peugeot teammate Stephane Peterhansel leads by two minutes over Carlos Sainz, with Nasser Al-Attiyah now third.

Al-Attiyah won the eighth stage as the second week of the Dakar got underway, and Loeb was initially within one minute of the Mini driver on the stage before getting stuck in dunes.While that cost Loeb eight minutes, the telling blow came much closer to Belen, with Loeb and co-driver Daniel Elena having to repair to Peugeot just to complete the stage.

"There was a dip and I didn't see it, so we arrived on it, fell in and it threw the car off balance and we rolled," Loeb explained. "We broke a lot of things on the car.

"We had to change two wheels and change the transmission so, for sure, we lost a lot of time."

Originally on Autosport.com