Nasser had a bad time today Al-Attiyah, but in the end the leader has limited the damage and can still enjoy a conspicuous advantage in this Dakar. The Qatari driver suffered a puncture in the first part of the eighth stage (Al Dawadimi-Wadi ad-Dawasir) and for about 350 of the 395 km of special he only had front-wheel drive. Not the best conditions to defend a record which fortunately for him was three quarters of an hour, and which has now been reduced to 37’58 ”. Not a good day for the three winner of the day, in short, but he can afford missteps.
“We only had front wheel drive because we broke the rear differential during the fraction: I was very scared all the way. But in the last part I didn’t care anymore, the last 50 km I tried to push a little more, it wasn’t easy with just the front wheels. I am very lucky to be here and to have lost only seven minutes from Loeb“, The Qatari told reporters. “We did a good job from the start, now we have some problems but I think we have to sit down with the team and see why all this happened today. It was a new differential, we had only used it yesterday, so I think it was badly fitted, but we’ll see what the mechanics say. I could have lost well over seven minutes, I could only use the third and fourth gear on the dunes, I could not push because there was a lot of noise and it also smells of oil“.
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