Qasr Al Sarab: Qatar’s Nasser Saleh Al Attiyah found himself alongside Austrian KTM Red Bull Factory team rider Matthias Walkner at the top of the leaderboard of the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge after the second 289.39-km Nissan stage of the event through the Rub Al Khali on Monday.
The Toyota driver claimed the fastest time on the day’s stage, held in punishing heat across the mighty dunes of the UAE. Al Attiyah’s stage win meant he extended his lead over Abu Dhabi Racing’s Shaikh Khalid Al Qasimi to 23min 03sec heading into the night halt at Qasr al Sarab.
“Today was a good day for us. It was not an easy stage.
“The stage is called Nissan. It is very difficult and hard. We just need to take care. To win by a big gap and have a big lead from Al Qasimi is good,” said Al Attiyah.
Sam Sunderland’s starting position meant that the overnight leader was hardly going to win the day’s stage and the Dakar champion ceded time to his rivals in the motorcycle category. Husqvarna’s Pierre Alexandre Renet began the day fifth on the road and pressed on to take the stage win from Monster Energy Honda’s Paolo Gonçalves.
New overnight leader Matthias Walkner was third quickest. “I did not know that I was leading,” said the Austrian. “Saying that, tomorrow they take the gap back. Hopefully I can finish on the podium. Tomorrow, the guys will take three or six minutes and the lead is changing again. It has been a good two days and I feel more confident riding in the dunes. I get into it and I enjoyed it.”
Sunderland said: “You always lose time when you start in front. I opened all the way for nearly 300km [the stage] and only Pablo [Goncalves] and Matthias physically caught me.
“Of all the riders here, that meant it was a good day. This race is strange with the strategy, you know. You kind of swap times each day. Tomorrow I start back and it will be the opposite. You just have to take each day as it comes. It’s been really hot the past few days and it’s really unpredictable out there. The bike is good. I am happy. The team have done a great job.”
Al Attiyah began the gruelling loop stage with a cushion of 11in 35.1sec over Abu Dhabi Racing’s Shaikh Al Qasimi and the Overdrive Racing Toyota Hilux driver pressed home his advantage from the front for the second day in the cars. Czech driver Martin Prokop produced another useful performance in the Jipocar Ford F-150 Evo to set the fourth quickest time behind Qatar’s Mohammad Abu Issa and the former WRC star leapt into third place in the overall rankings. Russian Vladimir Vasilyev got stuck in the dunes and slipped to fifth.
On Tuesday, competitors will tackle the second of three loop stages around the southernmost extremities of the UAE. The 288.73km special starts at the desert outpost of Tharwaniya off the road to Mezaira’a and winds its way through the towering dune complexes of the Rub Al Khali to finish 19km north of Hameem.
The route passes the famed Moreeb Hill before heading south and running along the frontier with Saudi Arabia. It then returns to the bivouac for a refuelling stop for the bikes at PC1.
