5-time Dakar Rally champion Nasser Al-Attiyah recently gave his fans a chance to take a look at how racers live in the desert.
Nasser Al-Attiyah shows his new ‘house’ amid Dakar Rally
Former Dakar champ Al-Attiyah took to his Twitter/X account and posted a video clip. He showed a small tent in which sleeping arrangements had been made. Check it out below:
⛺️ @AlAttiyahN shows us around his new house 😉#Dakar2024 pic.twitter.com/fGeiBTt4sw
— DAKAR RALLY (@dakar) January 12, 2024
Nasser Al-Attiyah suffers massive blow
Al-Attiyah, who has been aiming to win Dakar rally for the sixth time, took a massive blow on the 48-hour Stage 6 when his Prodrive Hunter came to a halt ahead of the penultimate waypoint with a broken steering bearing. This left him stranded in Empty Quarter.
The Qatari racer got his ride repaired after his team came to his aid. However, by the time he reached the final bivouac at Shubaytah, he was behind 2hr 45 mins to the leaders.
With Al-Attiyah now out of the running, Loeb is now the only driver with a realistic chance of overhauling Audi duo Sainz and Ekstrom in the 46th edition of the rally.
Loeb is competing for Prodrive under the Bahrain Raid Xtreme banner initially trailed buut managed to claim his second stage victory of 2023 and moved up to third in the standings.
Nasser Al-Attiyah hopes to spoil Audi’s party in Dakar
“It wasn’t a good day,” said Al-Attiyah. “We broke a steering bearing with 50 kilometers to go and we had to wait for our assistance to repair it. It’s a pity, because we had a good special stage despite starting at the front yesterday. In any case, we will continue and see what we can do”.
“The idea is to help Seb [Loeb] to win the Dakar. I’ll do everything I can to make it happen.”
Loeb deliberately missed a waypoint on Stage 5 to concede a penalty and secure a more favorable starting position for the 48-hour test. It’s worth noting that there are still six more stages to run in Dakar, with drivers set to fly to Riyadh to resume the rally on Sunday.
This year is seemingly Audi’s last chance of winning Dakar, with the German manufacturer set to shut down its last remaining factory effort to focus on its upcoming Formula 1 project with Sauber.
