Auto. Rally-raid: False start for Sébastien Loeb in South Africa

The third round of the World Rally Raid Championship (W2RC) began this Monday in South Africa with a 9km prologue.

The exercise did not smile on Sébastien Loeb and his co-driver Fabian Lurquin, who only achieved the 51st time with their Dacia Sandrider, two and a half minutes behind the Toyota Variawa-Cazalet duo who set the reference time.

"We made a mistake by missing a crossroads, which caused us to lose a bit of time," said the Alsatian. "It's not that serious, since the prologue only determines the road position for tomorrow (Tuesday) and is not taken into account in the standings. We have a first idea of ​​the profile of the stages. It looks quite tricky with a lot of junctions, so we'll have to be careful."

The first stage, this Tuesday, is 285 km long. The South African Safari Rally runs until Saturday.