Nasser Al-Attiyah, current Dakar champion, winner of the last two editions, said goodbye this Friday to any chance of securing his third consecutive Dakar crown by losing more than two hours due to engine problems late in stage 6. But he now has a next that purpose. The five-time champion of the hardest race in the world has set two goals for the second week of the race: to recover the greatest number of positions thinking to add the greatest number of points in the fight for the world title of 2024 FIA W2RC Rally-Raid and help your neighbor build, Sebastien Loeb.
It should be remembered that Al-Attiyah surprised the world by leaving Toyota, the team where he led 3 of the last 5 editions, to compete in this Dakar 2024 with a Prodrive Hunter, the same structure in which he has been fighting for several years.Sebastien Loeb. Furthermore, the Dakar is new announced his signing for DACIA as partner of the Frenchman and Cristina Gutiérrez in this new official team in Dakar 2025, also including Prodrive. That is, his rival from the last editions of the Dakar, Loeb, became his ally. And now that there are no options to win the 2024 Dakar, the Qatari assured that he will try to “give his all” to “try to help” Loeb against the two Audis leading the overall standings, those of Sainz and Ekström.
“I’m happy, but there are 50 km to go…”
The Qatari pilot lost 24 minutes to Sainz with 150 kilometers remaining in stage 6 on the first day of this special marathon. I had to grit my teeth at the end of this special once it resumed its march on Friday. Despite losing on the first day, the former Toyota said he was satisfied with his performance to attack the coming days. However, not long after, an unexpected problem arose.
“The opening track was pretty good, it wasn’t easy. We knew we were losing time, but hey, it’s good and I’m very happy. But with 50 kilometers to go, we broke the steering bearing”he declared.
“It has not been a good day for us. We broke the steering bearing with 50 km left to go and there was nothing we could do. We have to wait for our service truck to arrive and repair the car, so we were able to go. para finish the stage. But hey, we’ll try to keep going and see what we can do.”he added to the statements made to the organization, angry at what happened.
Your goals after a mechanical problem
“Everything is not over yet, but we will try to play now for the World title (W2RC) and I also want to help Seb (Loeb, also has a BRX Hunter and partner in 2025 at Dacia) and be next to him at least. he can win this Dakar”he declared, making it clear that he would do his part to seize the Dakar from his main rival, Carlos Sainz, and the Swede Ekström.
Sainz leads the general classification of Dakar 2024 after stage 6 with a margin of 20 minutes and 21 seconds over Mattias and 29’31” with respect to Loeb who was on stage 7 on Sunday (this Saturday is a rest day) may give more time need to open a track.
“The idea is to help Seb win the Dakar. I will do everything for him to win. We are a team”Nasser concluded.
Source: La Verdad
I’m Rose Herman and I work as an author for Today Times Live. My expertise lies in writing about sports, a passion of mine that has been with me since childhood. As part of my job, I provide comprehensive coverage on everything from football to tennis to golf.
