André Lotterer traded in his Oreca LMP2 for a Taurus T3 Max this past weekend at the Baja Aragón. He certainly would’ve preferred for his maiden cross-country rally to go a little smoother, but he still had a blast and wasn’t going to complain about a top-ten class finish.

The three-time 24 Hours of Le Mans winner and reigning FIA World Endurance Hypercar Champion, out of a full-time seat after being released by Porsche Penske Motorsport, had been eyeing the rally raid world for some time. He attended the Dakar Rally in January and has been open about dreaming of competing in it someday. In a step toward making that a reality, he reunited with his old WEC owner Alexandre Pesci by joining Rebellion Spierings for the Baja Aragón.

Twice Dakar Quad winner Alexandre Giroud served as his navigator. Together, the two finished tenth in the Challenger category and 30th overall.

After finishing 12th in T3 for the Prologue, he placed sixth for SS1 in what was a bit of a grind. He went off piste “once or twice”, struggled in the dust of the car he was chasing, and had to deal with “some really tight hairpins where I tried to put it in reverse and I couldn’t rotate the car so I lost a bit of time there.” All things considered, however, he called the effort “actually quite good” with “no major issues.”

“It’s a super cool experience,” Lotterer remarked after the first Selective Section. “Quite a lot of adrenaline for a long time because you have to really be alert, like your eyes on the road because there are no pacenotes. It’s basically navigation. It’s all visual stuff.”

He concluded the day third in Challenger and 17th for all FIA cars. Unfortunately, the second and final day ended up being a killer for his chances at a class podium.

A myriad of mechanical issues caused him to lose plenty of time. He lost his rear brakes 70 kilometers into the leg before locking up and overheating the front brakes, causing him to stall for 30 to 40 seconds. After changing his driving style, he “found some speed again”. Maybe too much, though, as he ended up doing a frontflip his car and landing back on his wheels; Lotterer remarked afterward that he was a “bit shaken but kept going”.

Lotterer also received ten minutes of penalties for not allowing faster cars to overtake him on two occasions.

“Would have been cool without these issues because I think then we could have been a front runner,” Lotterer commented. “Very impressive stage and really cool. Great experience.”

His teammate and Rebellion Spierings co-owner Paul Spierings finished 12th in Challenger.

Featured image credit: Rebellion Spierings