Dakar | Al-Attiyah: “Without breakages I would be leading by 20 minutes!”

The fourth special stage of the 2024 Dakar Rally held a surprise in the final kilometers of the 299 kilometer route, as Nasser Al-Attiyah first missed the stage victory by a few seconds compared to the overall leader Yazeed Al-Rajhi, who is the leader of the general classification.

Shortly afterwards, however, Sébastien Loeb took victory with the Prodrive, the same car as the Qatari, who managed to take third place in the general classification.

The reigning and defending world champion explained that it was a good stage, without too many mistakes, except in the last 50 kilometres, so he was “happy” to be third. However, when asked by Motorsport.com about Audi and its claims that the German cars would not cope, he replied: “The road is still long, it's still long. I wish Carlos [Sainz] and the best luck to the other riders, but the road is still long, we will see what the changes will be after the first week at the Dakar.

“It's not a surprise,” he commented about the Teutonic team. “The surprise will come tomorrow, because we will go to the Empty Quarter, where I have experience and learned a lot from the Dakar. It's a new car for me, but if you compare me with Seb [Loeb]I'm ahead, I'll try to learn more after the first week of the Dakar.”

Nasser Al Attiyah said the Hunter was “very good”, so he was satisfied before his move to Dacia, and when asked about the difficulty of winning the Dakar Rally, he said: “We have won the last two editions, they are “It was good races with Toyota, but now I'm in a new team, with a new car, I will try to do my best to win again.”

“Tomorrow will be an important day, we need to see where we are at, to have a good position for the 48 hour stage. I don't think I'll be at the back, we'll see what I'm capable of tomorrow, and if I have to open, I'll open [la pista]”, continued the Qatari, five-time winner of the toughest race in the world.

The beginning of his adventure at Prodrive is proving to be very different from the ending with Toyota, as he also explained: “The car [Toyota] it's good, all Toyotas have fewer problems, and we've had six punctures and are breaking arms [delle sospensioni] behind, but if you subtract that half hour, we would be twenty minutes ahead.

“Now we will study our Hunter better and see how it goes, but for now it is going well and next week we will have a part where we can attack more,” said the Qatari. “The regulations are the same, the power is the same for everyone. I feel more comfortable with this car, it's very good, but like I said, it's a new car, you can't arrive and start winning, we know that it's good for this place, and in the next three days we will make a plan with a good time for the race, that's the important thing.”

“We are learning about the new car and we will see, because it is not easy. The race is going very fast, there are many problems, but now, step by step, we can be at the top,” said a Nasser Al Attiyah who is at about eleven minutes behind the leader of the 2024 Dakar Rally.