staddoha.com
Overdrive Racing’s trio of Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah, Yazeed Al-Rajhi and Sebastien Halpern endured mixed fortunes at the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge, the second round of the new FIA World Rally-Raid Championship, with the front-running duo having to be content with bonus points for individual stage performances.
The FIA World Rally-Raid Championship resumes in Kazakhstan on April 24-30.
Al-Attiyah, co-driven by Frenchman Mathieu Baumel, arrived in the UAE with a one-point lead over WRC veteran Sébastien Loeb but a heavy landing damaged a lower suspension arm and a front wheel on the Qatari’s Toyota Hilux on the opening stage and the four-time winner had to play catch up over the next four days once time penalties were imposed.
Al-Attiyah managed to earn 20 points for four stage wins and problems for Loeb meant that he only dropped a few points to the Frenchman in the UAE.
“When I crossed the finish line of the last stage, I immediately remembered what happened on the first stage,” said Al-Attiyah. “That’s a little bit of disappointment. But to come back strong and win the remaining four stages wasn’t easy and we did amazing job. Our car was working very well and this is testament for our teamwork.”
Al-Attiyah’s challenge for a fourth win in Abu Dhabi suffered a setback from the start, when the Qatari suffered a damaged front right wheel and lower suspension arm close to the stage start and was forced to return to the start area to make emergency repairs.
He suffered massive time penalties of 16 hours as a result and slipped to the foot of the rankings.
“Not the rally start we planned for,” said Baumel. “But this is motorsport. After this bad luck landing, our lower arm was bent and we were not able to continue. There are still four stages to get some small championship points.”
Al-Attiyah was repositioned in fifth place on the road for the start of the second 326km loop through the dunes around Hameem and he attacked from the outset to eventually win the stage by 5min 50sec. Al-Rajhi came home in third and maintained second overall behind Peterhansel.
Al-Attiyah said: “Now we will try and win every day to take maximum points like we did today. We did quite a good job, I am quite happy. We have to now work for the points. Today we won five and I hope to win five points tomorrow as well.
“It’s a disappointment not to win the rally because it is my favourite rally. We need to accept what happened yesterday. This is a motorsport. Now we must try to push the limit of the car, like we did it today.”
Al-Attiyah picked up another five championship points for winning the third 255km stage, the Qatari finishing 5min 16sec ahead of Loeb, as Peterhansel came home in third to conserve his outright lead.
Baumel said: “The stage was a little bit faster than yesterday, some parts of dunes and less difficult. Nasser was pushing and we did a good stage. One more extra point than Sebastien Loeb. We’ll continue that way for the next two stages.”
Al-Attiyah made it four stage wins in a row on the short 209km sprint through the desert on the return to Abu Dhabi. Al-Rajhi came home with the second fastest time but Halpern was not able to complete the stage.