JEDDAH (AFP) - Nasser Al-Attiyah has moved into the lead of the Dakar Rally despite dropping more than 20 minutes, as Audi’s Carlos Sainz ground to a halt on an ultimately shortened third stage.
Heavy rain and low cloud meant that the initially planned 447km stage had to be called off before the final checkpoint as conditions became too bad for the helicopters to operate.
The ASO, therefore, had no other option but to end the stage some 70km early, leaving GCK Motorsport’s Guerlain Chicherit the fastest driver of the day in his Hunter T1+.
Up until that point, the primarily sandy trek from AlUla to Ha’il had already produced its fair share of drama, with a number of big names suffering significant time losses.
After losing more than an hour during Monday’s second stage, Bahrain Raid Xtreme’s Sébastien Loeb endured another frustrating day, stopping barely 26km into the stage and losing 20 minutes.
Erstwhile rally leader Carlos Sainz also hit trouble with an issue with the left-rear of his T1-Ultimate Audi RS Q e-tron E2. He was stranded for over half an hour but got going again, albeit way down the order.
This left Toyota’s Al-Attiyah in the effective overall lead, but the defending winner was not immune to his own strife. He lost more than 20 minutes to Chicherit but, crucially, only 16 minutes to Overdrive Racing’s Yazeed Al Rajhi, over whom Al-Attiyah maintains a healthy lead in the overall classification.
While Al-Attiyah and navigator Mathieu Baumel were able to limit the damage and emerge from the stage with a huge lead, Sainz and Lucas Cruz tumbled down the order to eighth after their woes.
The problems for the main T1+ and T1U contenders did not, however, take away from the entertaining battle for stage honors between Chicherit and Al-Attiyah’s Toyota Gazoo Racing team-mate Henk Lategan.
Chicherit hit the front after the second waypoint at 95km after early leader Al Rajhi dropped two minutes, with Lategan just 17s adrift before himself moving ahead by the third waypoint at 147km.
Al Rajhi was still in the mix but was now fourth behind the BRX Hunter of Orlando Terranova who kept in touch just 54s behind Lategan. The Toyota driver – alongside navigator and former biker Brett Cummings – began to edge away by the midway point of the stage but Chicherit (starting 28th on the road) hauled himself back into the lead by 45s by the 240km marker.