Dakar | Al-Attiyah: “Suspensions are Hunter's weak point”

The seventh stage of the 2024 Dakar saw yet another victory for Sébastien Loeb, who took his 26th victory in the history of the fastest race in the world. The Frenchman built an incredible lead after finishing the day, in which he cut more than ten minutes from Carlos Sainz, leaving the gap between the two leaders at less than twenty minutes, something that could be cut in a small detail.

However, the Frenchman was able to count on excellent help, that of Nasser Al-Attiyah, who suffered greatly from two punctures at the start of the 483 kilometer special stage. An error in the repair of one of the tires caused the accident to happen again, and he had to stop shortly afterwards to permanently fix problems with the right rear suspension arm.

Despite everything, the Qatari managed to place third during the day and explained everything he had to face: “We had two punctures and, after the second, the car became unstable again. Then we realized that one arm of the rear suspension had broken. It's a weak point of this car that we will have to improve. All in all, we finished in the top three, which is a good result.”

Another of those who was very fast was Lucas Moraes, a Brazilian who inherited Nasser Al Attiyah's car and who is third in the general classification, with options for everything, although an hour behind Carlos Sainz : “It was very difficult, we were the third car to open the track for most of the stage, and on the rocks we barely had a wheel to lean on.”

“And 50 kilometers from the finish, we suffered a slow puncture and we decided to continue and finish the stage with the tyre, so I apologize to the team, but I think it was the right thing to do,” said the driver of Toyota. “We are here, with seven stages behind us. The goal is to fight for the podium and I still believe in victory, so we will continue to fight and attack.”