LOEB THIRD FOR THE DACIA SANDRIDERS AFTER STAGE 1

From his starting position of 27th, Al-Attiyah charged through Stage 1 in a time of 2h29m33s, which put the Qatari and his French navigator Édouard Boulanger in fourth position in the provisional Ultimate category classification. However, a two-minute penalty for missing a waypoint in the dusty conditions leaves the FIA World Rally-Raid Championship (W2RC) points leader in ninth overall at the overnight halt in Sun City.

After a delayed run through Monday’s Prologue due to a rare driving error, Loeb lined up for Stage 1 at the head of the pack and spent the day with the unenviable task of opening the road alongside his Belgian navigator Fabian Lurquin.

Despite the hindrance, the Frenchman set what was initially the fifth quickest time, just nine seconds down on Al-Attiyah, to make it two sustainable-fuelled Dacia Sandrider in the top five at one point.

But penalties for Al-Attiyah and Jayden Els from the rival Red-Lined team, puts Loeb third after Stage 1, 3m34s behind overall pacesetter Henk Lategan from South Africa.

It was a strong start to round three of the W2RC season for The Dacia Sandriders, which has tackled desert-based rally-raids only to date, winning first time out in Morocco last October and again in Abu Dhabi back in February.

Starting from and finishing at the Sun City bivouac, Tuesday’s looped route took crews 200 kilometres southwest of the event base with a challenging route on gravel roads and farmland tracks. The stage also included sections of savanna, sand and Tarmac with a narrow and twisty opening first section and a wider and more open second part.

It was the second longest of the rally in terms of competitive kilometres.

KEY QUOTES

NASSER AL-ATTIYAH (QATAR), DRIVER, THE DACIA SANDRIDERS

“It was a good day for us, to learn the terrain and to see how things are going. It was not an easy stage because we start a long way behind and it was really dusty. The road was a little bit destroyed but we don’t take any risks and I’m quite happy to finish the day. Overtaking was very difficult because of the dust, there’s only a narrow line with a lot of gates to enter inside. The navigation was also very difficult because there was no reference, no line sometimes. It looks like the top 10 were going much better because there was less dust for them, but tomorrow we will have a good road position.”

SÉBASTIEN LOEB (FRANCE), DRIVER, THE DACIA SANDRIDERS

“We were opening the road. In places we knew the motorbikes had made some mistakes so we had to be very focused on the navigation – I was even more focused sometimes on navigation than I was on pushing and driving. But we did a good stage with no mistakes, a consistent rhythm. It was not a big push because I know it was a bit tricky in some places. Overall, it’s not bad and we are still in a good position, fifth in the stage. We didn’t know about the road position, whether it’s better to be first or far behind, whether there’s some dust. In the end I don’t think it changed a lot. Some places were narrow but honestly it was not so bad. At the start of the stage there was a lot of grass, we were driving a lot in the grass and the grip was very low and in some places the grip is changing a lot and you cannot see it so it’s very tricky. After that it was more fast sections between the fields with some junctions but not as narrow as we saw in the Prologue. We have a good position for tomorrow, Henk Lategan was very fast, but we knew that. Between the other guys, it’s quite close. Everything is going well.”

SOUTH AFRICAN SAFARI RALLY STAGE 1 RESULTS (UNOFFICIAL)

Sun City-Sun City

Stage distance: 260km / Liaison distance: 295km / Total distance: 555 km

3rd: Sébastien Loeb (FRA)/Fabian Lurquin (BEL), 2h29m42s

9th: Nasser Al-Attiyah (QAT)/Édouard Boulanger (FRA), 2h31m33s

SOUTH AFRICAN SAFARI RALLY: THE BIG NUMBER

3: Sébastien Loeb and Fabian Lurquin occupy the final spot on the provisional South African Safari Rally podium following Stage 1.

THE DAY AHEAD: STAGE 2, MAY 21

Part one of the Marathon Stage provides the most timed kilometres of the rally. Crews will experience more open savanna and fast open tracks during Stage 2, which is centred around Barberspan southwest of Sun City. The route includes “some off-piste sections where navigation will be important”, according to the South African Safari Rally organisers.

Stage distance: 308 km / Liaison distance: 311 km / Total distance: 619 km