In the second part of the 48-hour marathon, Nasser Al-Attiyah is stranded in the desert – he announces that he will help his team-mate Sebastien Loeb in the battle against Audi
Nasser Al-Attiyah can bury his hopes of a third consecutive overall victory in the sand at the halfway point of the 2024 Dakar Rally in Saudi Arabia. After numerous punctures at the start of the rally, Al-Attiyah got better and better with his new Prodrive Hunter. After the fifth stage, the five-time overall winner held second place in the overall standings.
He was just nine minutes behind Toyota driver Yazeed Al-Rajhi. But the 48-hour marathon in the “Empty Quarter” turned the tide of the race. First of all, Al-Rajhi had to retire after around 50 kilometers on Thursday following a rollover.
Al-Attiyah coped well with the first day of the new marathon format. But when the remaining kilometers towards Shubaytah had to be covered on Friday, he and his co-driver Mathieu Baumel were stranded in the Rub al-Chali desert.
“It wasn’t a good day,” sighs Al-Attiyah, explaining the reason: “Our steering broke on the last 50 kilometers. We couldn’t repair anything. We waited for our assistance truck. Then we were able to repair the steering and drive to the finish.”
Two hours and 45 minutes were lost due to the technical damage. Al-Attiyah/Baumel have dropped back to 17th place in the overall standings. They are just under an hour off the top 10 ahead of the second Dakar week.
“We will try to keep going. We will see what we can do,” said Al-Attiyah, not wanting to give up completely despite the setback. “We knew that we had lost time. It’s not all over yet. We will try to play for the world championship.”
“I will also try to help Seb,” announced Al-Attiyah, backing his Prodrive team-mate. “After all, he can win this Dakar. I will do my best to help him win, because we are a team. “
Sebastien Loeb finally won the sixth stage. In the overall standings, the Frenchman is in third place behind the Audi duo of Carlos Sainz and Mattias Ekström. Loeb is just under half an hour behind.
“It’s great to win the difficult 48-hour stage after we had two good days in the dunes,” said the record rally world champion with a satisfied nod. “We knew that 550 kilometers in the ‘Empty Quarter’ would be very tough for the car.”
“That’s why I tried to take it a little easier on the first day and not break anything, but today was more of a sprint. So I pushed pretty hard to gain some time. We are still with the music. The main goal was to be within 30 minutes of the top. There’s still a long way to go, we’ll see. “
