DACIA

"It was a difficult race for us. It was the first time with the Dacia Sandrider and we learned a lot. If you look the last couple or three race days, we came very strong. We are so happy still leading the championship, we fight to keep it and the final will be in Morocco, kind of homeland for me with seven titles there.”

F.L.

• Following in the footsteps of his father, Jean-Marie Lurquin, co-driver of Jean-Louis Schlesser with whom he finished third in the 2004 Dakar, the Belgian made his Dakar debut in 2005, teaming up with Chinese driver Lang Xu (44th).
• The co-driver from Liège won his first stage with Mathieu Serradori when he returned to the event in 2019 after a long break.
• Lurquin, a former airline pilot, caught the eye of Sébastien Loeb, who was looking for a new navigator after five editions alongside Daniel Elena, his right-hand man partner during his WRC years. The new duo formed in 2022 has only experienced podium finishes but not yet overall victory.
• A tireless walker, Fabian tackled the GR5, which winds from Rotterdam to Nice, including a three-week solo session during which he covered 600 kilometres from his home in Liège to the forests of the Vosges.