A collision at the Extreme E season opener in Saudi Arabia causes stink between Carlos Sainz and Nasser Al-Attiyah – Both have completely different opinions
For years, Nasser Al-Attiyah and Carlos Sainz have been fighting each other for overall victory in the Dakar Rally. Now the two off-road specialists are also competing in the Extreme E. Sainz shares a cockpit with Laia Sanz in the Acciona team. Al-Attiyah is new to this racing series in 2022 and drives with Jutta Kleinschmidt for Abt Cupra XE.
And right at the season opener in Saudi Arabia, Al-Attiyah and Sainz clashed. What happened? On Saturday, both were drawn into the first heat race of the second qualifying round. On the track, a wheel-to-wheel duel immediately developed.
In the course of the first lap, Al-Attiyah tried an overtaking manoeuvre on the inside. But he was too quick and was carried to the outside, while Sainz pierced back through on the inside on the racing line. For moments, Al-Attiyah was only driving on the outside two wheels.
The Qatari missed a flag marking the course. Behind this flag, Al-Attiyah and Sainz then crashed into each other sideways. While Al-Attiyah was able to continue, Sainz had to park his vehicle due to the collision damage.
At first, Al-Attiyah was said to have a problem with the power steering. But the race commissaires issued a statement saying that the telemetry of the car did not show any technical problem, neither before nor after the collision.
Sainz showed understanding for Al-Attiyah’s driving mistake, but not for his behaviour afterwards. “When something like that happens – and it can happen to any of us – then you come and apologise,” the two-time World Rally Champion and four-time Dakar winner thinks.
“But Nasser meant that his power steering or something was not working. Later the telemetry showed that wasn’t the case. It’s a bit funny, I would say. It is what it is, which is expensive. It can happen, but normally you apologise for a mistake.”
Al-Attiyah, a four-time Dakar winner himself, has a very different take on it: “I think it was a race. I drove my line and overtook Carlos. Then I got a bit far to the outside, I was only driving on two wheels. I was starting to think I wouldn’t make it back to four wheels. “
“Then I passed the flag and suddenly I got hit in the side. If that was an accident, I think he crashed into our car. That was not my fault. Okay, I will get a penalty for missing the flag. “
“But I got hit at 150 km/h. Okay, that was racing,” Al-Attiyah thinks. In the end, he was relegated to last place in this heat race. In addition, he was deducted two points in the intermediate result.
Finally, Kleinschmidt/Al-Attiyah did not make it to the final on Sunday because they finished second in the “Crazy Race”. In this race of last hope, only the winner moves into the final. Sainz/Sanz were in the final and eventually finished the Desert xPrix in second place.
