staddoha.com
Toyota Gazoo Racing’s Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah dominated the first week of the 44th Dakar Rally and had deservedly built up a lead of 48min 54sec at the event’s traditional rest day in Riyadh on Saturday.
Partnered by French co-driver Mathieu Baumel, who made several critical navigational decisions during a tricky week and six stages through the demanding deserts of Saudi Arabia, Al-Attiyah was able to win both parts of the opening stage and a further special on his way to a comfortable cushion over Overdrive Racing team-mate Yazeed Al-Rajhi and his co-driver Michael Orr.
Al-Attiyah said: “Absolutely, we are quite happy. We tried to push from the beginning but some drivers made some mistakes. Mathieu navigated well. We are quite happy to have finished the first week of the Dakar with a good lead. Mathieu did a good job. He was very careful to avoid making mistakes. I think we are in a good way. We’ve worked a lot this week without any risks. This is the Dakar and we will try to manage next week without any risks. We need to be strong all the way. We need to have a good pace without any relaxing because, when you relax, you make a mistake. We also need to navigate well.”
Al-Rajhi was deprived of one near certain stage win by a minor speeding penalty, but the Saudi was able to steer his Toyota Hilux into second at the expense of nine-time WRC champion Sébastien Loeb on the stage before the rest day.
Al-Attiyah’s Toyota Gazoo Racing team-mate Giniel de Villiers endured fraught preparations to his Dakar challenge and only arrived in the Kingdom at the 11th hour. When a five-hour time penalty was rescinded by the event stewards on Friday afternoon, the South African regained his place inside the top five and held fourth place in Riyadh, a mere 1min 31sec behind Loeb.
Argentina’s Lucio Alvarez and his Spanish navigator Armand Monleón had been running as high as third overall during the opening week in their Overdrive Racing Toyota Hilux but lost 20 minutes to their rivals on the sixth stage and slipped down to fifth place.
Juan Cruz Yacopini and Alejandro Yacopini drove a third Overdrive Racing Hilux and were classified in 23rd overall at the rest day.