Nasser Al-Attiyah shrugged off the frustration of a 15-minute penalty with a flat-out charge to the quickest time on Stage 3 of the South African Safari Rally, the seventh stage win for The Dacia Sandriders in the FIA World Rally-Raid Championship.
While Al-Attiyah was celebrating the 44th fastest stage time of his FIA World Rally-Raid Championship (W2RC) career, his team-mate, Sébastien Loeb, was also making impressive progress. Seventh overall at the completion of part one of the two-day Marathon Stage yesterday, Loeb fought through to lead round three of the W2RC for The Dacia Sandriders, which is contesting a non-desert event for the first time.
Leader of the W2RC points standings following his Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge victory in February, Al-Attiyah arrived in South Africa with high hopes. But he was penalised after he and navigator Édouard Boulanger inadvertently missed a waypoint during Stage 2. They had reached the Marathon Camp last night in the provisional overall lead only for the time penalty to be applied, dropping them to 15th position.
Despite the setback, Al-Attiyah headed off from the Marathon Camp this morning (Thursday) intent in clawing back some of the time lost on Stage 2.
From a starting position of 17th, the Qatari was quickly into his stride, reaching 56 kilometres with a narrow seven-second stage lead. Having dropped behind local hero Henk Lategan at the 121-kilometre mark, Al-Attiyah reversed a 1m18s deficit to the South African at 155 kilometres to top the stage order after 178 kilometres of action.
Even with the application of a two-minute time penalty for overspeeding in a restricted section, Al-Attiyah claimed the stage win by five seconds ahead of Carlos Sainz with Loeb and navigator Fabian Lurquin completing the 238-kilometre stage fourth quickest.
Loeb’s performance alongside Lurquin puts him on top of the South African Safari Rally by 23s over Sainz with two days of intense competition remaining.
And having camped out overnight, Al-Attiyah/Boulanger and Loeb/Lurquin are now back in the Sun City Bivouac with their colleagues from The Dacia Sandriders ahead of Stage 4, which is located close to South Africa’s border with Botswana.
KEY QUOTES
Nasser Al-Attiyah (Qatar), driver, The Dacia Sandriders : « It was a good stage for us, not easy because there was a lot of navigation needed in this stage and we don’t take any risk. I’m quite happy to win the stage, except for the penalty of two minutes we have for speeding. We need to check again and will discuss this penalty. The 15-minute penalty we have from yesterday has put us completely out of the podium but there are still two days to go and I will try to do my best tomorrow. To open the road here is very difficult but maybe tomorrow will be a faster stage and we can see from the start. The Dacia Sandrider is good here, Seb is leading overall and we are quite happy. We need to bring both cars close, I will try to help him and we also need the Manufacturers’ championship points. »
Sébastien Loeb (France), driver, The Dacia Sandriders : « It has been a difficult day, the navigation was really tricky. We lost some time in the stage in a few places, so I was not so happy in the stage. But I think everybody struggled a bit in the stage because it was really difficult. Now we are leading the rally, that was a surprise at the end of the day, but it’s good news. We know there are two long days to go but, at the moment, it’s going well. We’ve seen that the more later you start the better you are but, at the end, our rivals are between first and 10th positions. Maybe it’s not the best position but it’s not so bad. »
SOUTH AFRICAN SAFARI RALLY STAGE 3 RESULTS – Marathon Camp-Sun City
Stage distance: 238km Liaison distance: 272km Total distance: 518km
1st: Nasser Al-Attiyah (QAT)/Édouard Boulanger (FRA), 2h53m29s
4th: Sébastien Loeb (FRA)/Fabian Lurquin (BEL), 2h54m51s
SOUTH AFRICAN SAFARI RALLY PROVISIONAL OVERALL RESULTS AFTER STAGE 3
1st: Sébastien Loeb (FRA)/Fabian Lurquin (BEL) 8h47m05s
12th: Nasser Al-Attiyah (QAT)/Édouard Boulanger (FRA), +10m57s
SOUTH AFRICAN SAFARI RALLY: THE BIG NUMBER
7: The Stage 3 victory for Nasser Al-Attiyah and Édouard Boulanger was the seventh for The
Dacia Sandriders since its W2RC debut on Rallye du Maroc last October.
THE DAY AHEAD: STAGE 4, MAY 23
Located west of Sun City close to South Africa’s border with Botswana and passing near to Dinokana and Skilpadshek, the penultimate stage of the South African Safari Rally starts on dirt tracks through bushland before it becomes « tight and rocky as it goes into the mountains », according to the event organisers. The surface varies between savannah and gravel with some sections on black turn, stones, sand and Tarmac.
Stage distance: 224km Liaison distance: 469km Total distance: 694km
Linda Hirvonen,