Nasser Al Attiyah drives during the second day of the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge.
Abu Dhabi: Qatar’s Nasser Saleh Al Attiyah recorded the fastest time of the day to win the 318-km Special Stage 2 of the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge (ADDC), yesterday, 24 hours after he crashed out of overall contention.
Toyota Gazoo Racing’s Al Attiyah and his French Navigator Mathieu Baumel finished the stage in 4:25:11 with Frenchman Sebastian Loeb (4:29:01) coming in second place, followed by Saudi driver Yazeed Al Rajhi (12:55’) and overall leader Stephen Peterhansel (14:36’).
In the general standings, Peterhansel - winner of a record nine World Rally Championship titles, remains in the lead ahead of Al Rajhi who is now 7’49’ behind the Audi Sport driver.
Martin Prokop is third at 15’50’’ from the leader, Jakub Przygonski 4th at 40’07’’ and Mathieu Serradori 5th at 1h01’38’’. Loeb is more than two hours behind while Al Attyiah is more than 20 hours behind following his 24-hour delay after returning to the start after damaging the front right wheel of his car on Day 1.
Reaching the finish in his Toyota Hilux, Al Attiyah said: “Now we will try and win every day to take maximum points like we did today. We did quite a good job, I am quite happy. We have to now work for the points. Today we won five and I hope to win five points tomorrow as well.
“It’s a disappointment not to win the rally because it is my favourite rally. We need to accept what happened yesterday. This is a motorsport. Now we must try to push the limit of the car, like we did it today.”
Stephen Petershansel, fourth quickest on the stage in an Audi RS Q e-tron, finished the leg with a reduced outright cars advantage of 7 mins 49 secs from Saudi Arabia’s Yazeed Al Rajhi in a Toyota Hilux.
Czech Martin Prokop was third, 15 mins 50 secs off the lead in his Ford Raptor RS Cross Country.
Poland’s Jakub Przygonski in a Mini John Cooper Works Buggy and Mathieu Serradori in a Century CR6 completed the top five.
Nine-times World Rally Champion Sebastien Loeb, whose victory ambitions on his Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge debut were buried by a series of first leg mechanical problems, recovered to set the second fastest time on the day in his Prodrive Hunter.
Yesterday’s ADNOC Distribution Special Stage 2 took the cars, trucks, bikes and quads on a difficult 318km passage through the Al Dhafra dunes, with My Station trucks on hand to refuel rally competitors along the spectacular desert route.
