The start of the 2024 Dakar made it clear that Nasser Al-Attiyah will not have an easy path like in the last edition. The Qatar driver saw the Audi team win the second stage with Stephane Peterhansel, who thus equaled Ari Vatanen's record of 50 stage victories.
When Motorsport.com asked him about the historic record set by “Monsieur Dakar”, the Qatari replied that it won't take him long to finish in first place, and indeed he will counterattack with a victory: “Stephane did very well. Tomorrow I will win and then I will match it. How many do I have? I have 48, I only need two, but they will arrive, the road is still long.”
The Prodrive driver was very confident in his calculations, despite the official Dakar statistics giving him 47. But it matters little to Nasser Al-Attiyah who will also try to win his sixth Toureg trophy: “We'll see, the road is still long , I'll try. For today I'm happy with how I rode and I'll continue to improve day after day.”
Regarding the second stage of the toughest race in the world, Al-Attiyah indicated that it was a good day, although he explained the setback that delayed him, which seems to be the weak point of his car: “It was a good day, but we had a problem and stopped for ten minutes due to the rear steering arm, which had already broken yesterday on Loeb's car. But, on the other hand, we had a good pace, so I'm not worried “.
“Only the steering arm broke, which is the weak point of this car: maybe there is a modification, we just need to check it,” continued the man from Prodrive, who trusts in his structure to solve the problem. “The change can change everything, the team can fix that area, because yesterday it happened with Seb and today it happened to me.”
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