For the first time since the competition began in Arabia, Al Attiyah he really feared that his Dakar victory was threatened. “I am very lucky to be here”, declared at the end of the eighth stage. And it is to say that the Qatari saved the furniture falls short. Because 50 kilometers into the nearly 400 special he ran out of rear-wheel drive in his Toyota by losing a spread. I mean, he had to go with a 4×4 as if it were a 4×2, a buggy front-wheel drive, and that with a lot of dunes still ahead.
“We had a puncture and for 350 kilometers we have only been with the front wheel drive of the car and I was really scared “, admitted Nasser, who says that “there was a small part that broke inside the car and made a lot of noise”: “We had to manage it all the way. The speed is total and we had to go slower. We have done a good job from the beginning and if now we start to have problems … We have to sit down with the team and see why it happened. “
Although he thinks he knows why: “It is a new rear differential, I think there is something wrongly adjusted, we will see what the mechanics say.” They will have to find the problem soon because Monday was only a scare, he only lost seven minutes with Loeb (plus what he penalized later), but he will not want to go through the same thing, although then he was able to press at the end a little: “In the The last part didn’t matter to me and I tried to attack for the last 50 kilometers, but it wasn’t easy. The Dakar is not over and it must be respected. “
#Attiyah #scared #lucky