Sebastien Loeb has conceded that Peugeot faces a difficult task of defending its Dakar title against Toyota, on evidence from the opening stage. The timed 39km run that kicked off the 2017 edition of the Dakar Rally was topped by Toyota newcomer Nasser Al-Attiyah, with the lead Peugeot – that of Carlos Sainz – half a minute down in fourth. But while the results of the opening run have been dismissed as unrepresentative by many, Loeb reckons Toyota's advantage on that type of stages – WRC-style sprints – was on display on Monday. "In this first stage, they were faster than us because we have very different cars - they have a four-wheel drive with more horsepower and we have a...
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