The Dacia Sandriders head into the final week of the Dakar Rally further boosted after its two crews set top six times on Stage 7 of the FIA World Rally-Raid Championship counter.
Nasser Al-Attiyah and Édouard Boulanger were fourth fastest through the 419-kilometre Al-Duwadimi loop stage today (Sunday) – two places ahead of team-mates Cristina Gutiérrez andPablo Moreno – to close up to the overall leaders.
The third crew to tackle the varied terrain of Stage 7, Al-Attiyah and Boulanger made it to the finish in 4h13m04s, with Gutiérrez and Pablo Moreno taking 4h13m49s to complete the challenging test.
But there was a delay to the stage results being published after times recorded during a 20-kilometre section were annulled due to an error in the digital road book at 158 kilometres. While the issue was problematic for several crews, it was a source of particular frustration for Gutiérrez and Moreno.
The Spaniards had profited from the navigational mistakes made by several crews to lead the stage after 183 kilometres. But once the times were adjusted, they fell just short of emulating their event-best fifth-fastest time recorded on Stage 1.
After spending Saturday narrowing the gap to third place, cutting the deficit from 15 minutes to eight, Al-Attiyah/Boulanger are some 11 minutes adrift of the final podium spot in fourth having started five positions ahead of their direct rivals in terms of the Sunday road order.
Despite their determined push in the #200 sustainably-fuelled Dacia Sandrider, Al-Attiyah/Boulanger were ultimately unable to avoid losing time through a stage that featured sand dunes, fast stretches, rocky passes and sections in canyons, particularly when they had to open the road. It even rained at one point.
However, from being 30m25s behind the Dakar Rally leaders after Stage 6, Al-Attiyah/Boulanger have cut that margin to 21m57s with five stages remaining.
From 18th on the road, Gutiérrez/Moreno made rapid progress by climbing to fourth after 138 kilometres. Fourth became second after 183 kilometres before they moved into the lead at 213 kilometres, a position they still held after 255 kilometres before the times were adjusted following the road book issue. Their impressive progress was hampered, however, by an enforced wheel change in the final 100 kilometres.
KEY QUOTES
Nasser Al-Attiyah (Qatar), driver, The Dacia Sandriders : « A nightmare. In one place we catch the top two, we try to open [a gap] but finally we found something strange [with the navigation] so we go back again to check three times and then we know it’s something wrong with the road book. It was not easy, we just tried to manage. Suddenly we get the right point but it was not inside the road book, it was by luck and then we continue. Inside the car we say it should be cancelled. When we arrive at the finish the section was cancelled for everyone. But we did a good job to reduce the gap to the leader to around 20 minutes, this is really good with five stages left. »
Édouard Boulanger (France), navigator, The Dacia Sandriders : « At kilometre 157 there was a road book mistake that the opening car didn’t recognise. It was in a mountain background that was leading to some short canyons and we didn’t find the exit. We were arriving first there and thinking we’d made a mistake, so we went back and we try again but we were arriving to the same place. Some other cars were coming and we were trying to look to the exit together. At the end we were 12 cars together. We were really thinking what to do to exit from there because clearly there was a mistake, but as we are totally used to having a road book that’s normally 100 per cent accurate, we were sticking to the road book and we didn’t recognise where can be the mistakes. At the end we find the valley that was totally wrong, but it was the only way to exit. After a few kilometres the way point pops up so finally we were back on track. From this moment the stage was a bit better but in the last 100 kilometres we open again the whole stage, which wasn’t very good. Being clear it’s not good (what happened with the road book) and then we were opening with six or seven cars behind us just wating for the job to be done. In the car it was really stressful, there is no communication and we cannot know the section is cancelled in the car. Before the finish it was a bad day but at the conclusion of the day it was a good day for us, but it was really not nice to live it. »
Cristina Gutierrez (Spain), driver, The Dacia Sandriders : « It was a little bit difficult in these kilometres because we saw many people were lost, we saw João Ferreira, who started a lot of minutes in front of us, so we imagined that everything is going to happen, so we keep focus on the moment and the notes. Finally, we could find the way point after six or seven minutes. After that we take a good rhythm, we were more comfortable than yesterday in the car. In the last 100 kilometres we had a puncture and we stopped and changed. After when we saw the times it was nice, and after all the kilometres removed by the
organisation we finished sixth, but it was good day for us. »
DAKAR RALLY PROVISIONAL STAGE 7 RESULTS : Al-Duwadimi-Al-Duwadimi
Stage distance: 419km / Liaison distance: 297km / Total distance: 716km
4th: Nasser Al-Attiyah (QAT)/Édouard Boulanger (FRA), +11m15s
6th: Cristina Gutiérrez (ESP)/Pablo Moreno (ESP), +12m00s
DAKAR RALLY PROVISIONAL OVERALL RESULTS AFTER STAGE 7
4th: Nasser Al-Attiyah (QAT)/Édouard Boulanger (FRA), +21m57s
43rd (TBC): Cristina Gutiérrez (ESP)/Pablo Moreno (ESP), +37h38m39s
DAKAR RALLY: THE BIG NUMBER
6: For the first time on its Dakar Rally debut, The Dacia Sandriders celebrated two of its cars
posting top-six stage times.
THE DAY AHEAD: STAGE 8, AL-DUWADIMI-RIYADH, JANUARY 13
Monday’s Al-Duwadimi-Riyadh is expected to provide another challenging and varied test for the remaining competitors, albeit on faster terrain than Sunday’s stage.
Stage distance: 487km / Liaison distance: 246km / Total distance: 733km
Linda Hirvonen,