Toyota Gazoo Racing's Nasser Saleh Al Attiyah drives during Stage 3 of Dakar Rally 2022.
AL QAISUMAH: Nasser Al Attiyah avoided the problems suffered by Sebastien Loeb and finished the Dakar Rally third stage extending his overall lead to 38 minutes yesterday.
Loeb, the nine-time world rally champion, started the 255-kilometer loop stage around Al Qaisumah, shortened by 100 kilometers because of recent flooding, just nine minutes behind Al Attiyah overall but soon found himself in trouble.
His Prodrive's longitudinal transmission broke after 10 minutes leaving him in two-wheel drive. Halfway through the stage in northern Saudi Arabia he was already 15 minutes off the pace.
Meanwhile, Al Attiyah bided his time in his Toyota, and the Qatari finished eighth on a stage won by fellow three-time champion Carlos Sainz in 2 1/2 hours. Sainz earned his 40th career stage win, fourth best in Dakar history.
Al Attiyah said he took advantage of Loeb’s mechanical problems to take it easier.
“I think Seb had a problem with the car and we just tried to take it easy without any risks. I’m quite happy to finish the stage without any problems. This will be good for tomorrow,” Al Attiyah said.
“Tomorrow is a very long stage. I think we need to be really careful on the long stages. I wasn’t surprised to be caught by Carlos because I was going very slowly. It was not a surprise because my main target is Sebastien Loeb not Carlos Sainz. I don’t need to fight with Carlos because he is too far from us. Seb was the main target, but now Seb has a problem. We’re just trying to control the rally. It’s not easy, you know, because now we are on day three and it has happened a lot with many, many drivers, but this is the Dakar and we need to respect the Dakar,” Al Attiyah said.
Henk Lategan of South Africa was second, and Stephane Peterhansel of France third within two minutes.
Loeb was more than 33 minutes back and dropped to 38 minutes overall, still in second.
British rider Sam Sunderland led the motorbike race overall for a second straight day, but his lead over Adrien van Beveren of France was slashed to four seconds. Sunderland was 17th on the third stage while Van Beveren was ninth.
Joaquim Rodrigues of Portugal took the stage for the first Dakar win for him and his Hero team.
Stage 3 Results
1 Carlos Sainz/Lucas Cruz (Audi) 3h25m00s
2 Henk Lategan/Brett Cummings (Toyota Gazoo Racing) +3m28s
3 Stéphane Peterhansel/Edouard Boulanger (Audi) +7m56s
8 Nasser Al Attiyah/Mathieu Baumel (Toyota Gazoo Racing) +11m17s
Overall standings:
1 Al Attiyah/Baumel (Toyota) 9h31m22s
2 Loeb/Lurquin (Bahrain Raid Xtreme) +37m40s
3 Alvarez/ Monleon (Overdrive Toyota) +42m06s
