The Dacia Sandriders remains on course to achieve its goal of reaching the finish on its Dakar Rally debut as the final day of the FIA World Rally-Raid Championship season opener approaches.
And while crossing the finishing line at the Shubaytah bivouac tomorrow (Friday) remains the top priority, it didn’t stop Nasser Al-Attiyah and Édouard Boulanger and Cristina Gutiérrez and Pablo Moreno from once again demonstrating the pace and potential of the sustainably-fuelled Dacia Sandrider on the toughest event of the international motorsport calendar.
In full recovery mode following their setback on Stage 10 caused by a navigational issue, Al-Attiyah and Boulanger clocked the second fastest time through Stage 11 today (Thursday). They completed the penultimate test in the sand dunes of Saudi Arabia’s Empty Quarter in 4h20m08s, just 41s behind the quickest crew.
The performance was particularly remarkable given Al-Attiyah/Boulanger had to stop in the stage to replace two damaged tyres before they could continue their flat-out charge on aboard the #200 Dacia Sandrider.
« We were gaining time but suddenly we catch one car, » Al-Attiyah explained. « There was a lot ofdust, the road was coming a little bit left, but we overshot and there was big sand on the outside and it was nearly a roll. We have two flat tyres, we stop and we change everything. We try to recover again because we stopped for five minutes. »
Ahead of the Dakar Rally’s final stage, Al-Attiyah/Boulanger are in fourth position and on course for a strong haul of FIA W2RC points. The joint record of 50 Dakar Rally stage wins also remains on Al-Attiyah’s radar after he set the fastest time on Stage 9, The Dacia Sandriders’ maiden stage victory on the event. The record is jointly held by Stéphane Peterhansel and Ari Vatanen.
Gutiérrez and Moreno were the sixth crew to take the stage start, which was delayed by some two hours due to fog restricting visibility and preventing the safety helicopters from taking flight.
After stopping in the stage for several minutes while they waited in order to provide their crucial supporting role to team-mates Al-Attiyah/Boulanger, who started 28th on the road, the Spaniards completed the 280-kilometre Shubaytah loop stage in 5h18m22s. The effort represented another impressive showing from the Ultimate category rookies after they were stationary for approximately 40 minutes.
KEY QUOTES
Nasser Al-Attiyah (Qatar), driver, The Dacia Sandriders : « I would say it’s a good day, not so bad. I’m happy with the performance of the car, it’s really working very well. This is a good way for us and the championship is also very important. The first place is too far away but we did our best for this race and we know it’s a new car and always with a new car you need to be really careful and check many things. But we are really happy to be in the top five with a new car. For sure I would love to win this race but it will come next time and in the next race I will do my best to win the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge. Tomorrow I will try to win the stage because it will be nice to have 50 stage wins. »
Cristina Gutierrez (Spain), driver, The Dacia Sandriders : « The day was difficult because there were a lot of kilometres in the dunes, difficult dunes that were soft. We wait for Nasser at the beginning, and we were trying to follow him a little bit. Then we saw him stopped and we follow him for 50ks more and we see he has stopped again because he has another flat tyre and he asked us to give him one of our tyres. We give to him and then we did our own race. We finished with no problems and without these 40 minutes lost we would have been in the top five, which is nice to know and to know we can be competitive. »
DAKAR RALLY PROVISIONAL STAGE 11 RESULTS – Shubaytah-Shubaytah, January 17
Stage distance: 280km / Liaison distance: 226km / Total distance: 506km
2nd: Nasser Al-Attiyh (QAT)/Édouard Boulanger (FRA), +41s
30th: Cristina Gutiérrez (ESP)/Pablo Moreno (ESP), +58m55s
DAKAR RALLY PROVISIONAL OVERALL RESULTS AFTER STAGE 11
4th: Nasser Al-Attiyah (QAT)/Édouard Boulanger (FRA), +26m50s
31st (TBC): Cristina Gutiérrez (ESP)/Pablo Moreno (ESP), +38h42m40s
DAKAR RALLY: THE BIG NUMBER
7: Nasser Al-Attiyah and Édouard Boulanger’s capture of the second fastest time on Stage 11 means The Dacia Sandriders’ lead crew have posted seven top-10 stage times on the team’s Dakar Rally debut.
THE DAY AHEAD: STAGE 12, SHUBAYTAH-SHUBAYTAH, JANUARY 17
The 2025 Dakar Rally concludes with a 134-kilometre blast through the desert of Shubaytah on Friday. A fast pace is expected ahead of the finish at the bivouac in the middle of the dunes.
Stage distance: 134km / Liaison distance: 71km / Total distance: 205km
Linda Hirvonen,