Al-Attiyah extends lead as Loeb takes as Stage Four of Dakar Rally

 

Al-Attiyah extends lead as Loeb takes as Stage Four of Dakar Rally

 

Doha, Qatar: January 4: Nasser Al-Attiyah has extended his overall Dakar Rally lead to over 18 minutes as Sebastien Loeb fought back from a nightmare start to pick up his first stage win of the 2023 event despite a power steering failure.

Yazeed Al Rajhi (Overdrive Toyota) retains second overall after Stage 4, 18:18s behind Al-Attiyah and 34 seconds ahead of Stephane Peterhansel, with Carlos Sainz fourth at 32:55s off the pace.

Peterhansel was quickest for the first 282km of the 425km loop stage around Ha’il in his Audi RS Q e-tron, but Bahrain Raid Xtreme’s Loeb was never much more than a minute in arrears.

It was then that the latter took over the stage lead, which he held onto despite losing power steering in his Prodrive Hunter.

“We tried to push really hard on this stage. We went on full attack all the time,” said Loeb.

We lost the power steering 20km from the end, so we had to finish the stage very slowly.

“I couldn’t keep the car on the tracks. We spun out at one point because I couldn’t turn the steering wheel.

“It was very difficult to finish the stage, but at the end we still have the best time, so it’s better than nothing.”

The nine-time World Rally Champion’s mood was probably not helped by the fact that the stage win only got him back to 1:33:43s behind the lead in the overall classification after suffering three punctures on Stage 2.

Behind Peterhansel, Sainz made it two factory Audis in the top three although the Spaniard is similarly 32:55s behind Al-Attiyah in fourth overall thanks to his nightmare on Stage 3.

Al-Attiyah himself was fourth-quickest on the stage in a Toyota Gazoo Racing entry, ahead of fellow Hilux driver Al Rajhi.

“There was a lot of camel grass and off-piste, so it wasn’t easy,” said the former.

“We had one flat tyre and then we tried to push. I don’t know what the result will be, but I think it’s a good one for us.

“We’ve been really very fast. We’ve made no mistakes at all and Mathieu [Baumel] navigated well. We are quite happy.”

The Qatari added, “The Audi is fast in the sand, but we are quite happy to finish day four and we will see what we can do the next day.

“The second week will be more interesting and we are quite happy.”

Surprise Stage 3 winner Guerlain Chicherit (GCK Motorsport) and Mathieu Serradori (Century Factory Racing) were hamstrung by mechanical problems, while Orlando Terranova (Bahrain Raid Xtreme) returned to the bivouac early on.

Stage 5 is another loop around Ha’il, with more sand and dunes for drivers to negiotiate.

Overall classification: Cars Top 10

Pos         Driver    Co-driver             Team     Time/Gap

1              Nasser Al-Attiyah             Mathieu Baumel               Toyota Gazoo Racing      16:34:13

2              Yazeed Al Rajhi  Dirk von Zitzewitz            Overdrive Racing              +0:18:18

3              Stéphane Peterhansel   Edouard Boulanger         Team Audi Sport               +0:18:52

4              Carlos Sainz        Lucas Cruz           Team Audi Sport               +0:32:55

5              Henk Lategan     Brett Cummings               Toyota Gazoo Racing      +0:45:25

6              Lucas Moraes    Timo Gottschalk               Overdrive Racing              +0:45:27

7              Giniel De Villiers               Dennis Murphy Toyota Gazoo Racing      +0:48:13

8              Mattias Ekstrom               Emil Bergkvist    Team Audi Sport               +0:50:00

9              Martin Prokop   Viktor Chytka     Orlen Benzina Team        +1:14:43

10           Erik Van Loon     Sébastien Delaunay        Overdrive Racing              +1:15:40