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Tribune News Network
DOHA
Qatar’s Nasser bin Saleh al Attiyah continued to tighten his grip on his third Dakar Rally crown. The Toyota Gazoo Racing driver had an error-free run in the 575-km eighth stage from San Juan de Marcona to Pisco on Tuesday and widened his lead over closest rivals by over
45 minutes.
Former world champion Spaniard Sebastien Loeb, who started the stage late due to the rally format rules, was able to overtake Attiyah on the basis of timing and looked like denying him his 34th stage victory.
At the time of going to the press, Attiyah was 46:29 minutes ahead of X-Raid Team’s Nani Roma and leading main challenger and 13-time Dakar winner Stephane Peterhansel by 53:30.
With two stages remaining, if Attiyah and his French co-driver Matthieu Baumel don’t make any blunder, the Qatari star should be able to wrap up his breakthrough victory for the Japanese
manufacturers.
While Attiyah drove cleverly in the dunes of Ica, Peterhansel, despite a bright start, got stuck there and it allowed Attiyah to power ahead. Then the Qatari kept on pushing and finished provisionally 7’48 ahead of Jakub Przygonski. Giniel de Villiers and Nani Roma came home 8’28 and 8’30 behind.
At the end of the seventh stage, a satisfied looking Attiyah said, “We’ll see what we can do these last three days. Everything’s fine, we’ll be in a better position on Tuesday.
“Today was difficult, we knew Stéphane was going to attack. We lost eleven or twelve minutes, but we’ve still got about half an hour in the overall....,” he added.
DOHA
Qatar’s Nasser bin Saleh al Attiyah continued to tighten his grip on his third Dakar Rally crown. The Toyota Gazoo Racing driver had an error-free run in the 575-km eighth stage from San Juan de Marcona to Pisco on Tuesday and widened his lead over closest rivals by over
45 minutes.
Former world champion Spaniard Sebastien Loeb, who started the stage late due to the rally format rules, was able to overtake Attiyah on the basis of timing and looked like denying him his 34th stage victory.
At the time of going to the press, Attiyah was 46:29 minutes ahead of X-Raid Team’s Nani Roma and leading main challenger and 13-time Dakar winner Stephane Peterhansel by 53:30.
With two stages remaining, if Attiyah and his French co-driver Matthieu Baumel don’t make any blunder, the Qatari star should be able to wrap up his breakthrough victory for the Japanese
manufacturers.
While Attiyah drove cleverly in the dunes of Ica, Peterhansel, despite a bright start, got stuck there and it allowed Attiyah to power ahead. Then the Qatari kept on pushing and finished provisionally 7’48 ahead of Jakub Przygonski. Giniel de Villiers and Nani Roma came home 8’28 and 8’30 behind.
At the end of the seventh stage, a satisfied looking Attiyah said, “We’ll see what we can do these last three days. Everything’s fine, we’ll be in a better position on Tuesday.
“Today was difficult, we knew Stéphane was going to attack. We lost eleven or twelve minutes, but we’ve still got about half an hour in the overall....,” he added.
