Al-Attiyah Gascon
“Tomorrow (today, ed) I win”. Nasser Al-Attiyah began the 46th edition of the Dakar by giving “three days” at Audi first “to go home” – a prophecy that 'expires' today without taking into account the Prologue – and after two stages he pays 12 minutes to the leader Carlos Sainz. This is why today Al-Attiyah will try to push a little harder using the experience gained driving the Hunter Prodrive in the first two stages.
The Qatari, winner of the last two editions of the Dakar with Toyota, will be chasing the first of the three stage successes that separate him from quota 50 cut yesterday by Stephane Peterhansel, a second stage in which Nasser Al-Attiyah had to deal with problems with the rear steering arm, the same component that had given Loeb problems in the first stage.
The Alsatian is well aware of this weakness of the Hunters which Prodrive has not remedied: “I've been pointing out this weak point for two years but the technicians continue to say that this is fine – said Sebastien Loeb as reported by today's edition of the French newspaper The Team – it breaks too easily and is one of the situations in which we pay for the fact of not being an official team, but a 'private' one (Prodrive is not a manufacturer, ed). For now we get on well with Nasser and we share all the technical information in the debriefings at the end of each stage.” Loeb is second overall just over four minutes behind Carlos Sainz, who today will try to exploit his rivals' 'traces' to increase his lead.
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