The “big mistake” of navigation which costs Al-Attiyah and Dacia dearly

Nasser Al-Attiyah may have lost any chance of winning a sixth Dakar this Wednesday, in a dune stage which had all the makings of an ideal playground for him. The Dacia driver, winner the day before of his first special with the French manufacturer, had the heavy responsibility of opening the road but it was a gross navigation error that ruined his day.

“I’m very disappointed, but what can we do?”he lamented at the finish of the special. “We could have had a good stage, but we are going to see what position we are in and what we can do tomorrow. Every day is very important, and we had a good pace but we lost a lot of time. This is the day most disappointing of my life.”

What happened for the Qatari to finish in a very distant 30th position in today's stage, with a delay of 21'29 over the winner Nani Roma? His co-pilot Édouard Boulanger pleads guilty and explains himself.

“It wasn't hard all day, it was hard because I made a big mistake at kilometer 10”assumes the Frenchman. “There were two drawings, two boxes, identical [sur le roadbook] and I just skipped a line.”

“So I made a real mistake at kilometer 10, taking the wrong heading for over three kilometers. Afterwards, I was focused on staying on my heading because there was a waypoint to catch up behind. realize my mistake, we lost I don't know how much time, but the day wasn't hard, it's because I made a mistake.”

Still fourth in the general classification at the end of this complicated day, Nasser Al-Attiyah and Édouard Boulanger are now 30'21 behind the leader of the general classification, Henk Lategan. In front of them, Mattias Ekström is at 26'46, leaving an opportunity for a podium, but the final victory seems out of reach on a regular basis.

Thursday will offer a new excursion into the Empty Quarter desert, with once again dunes to try to make the difference over a little over 300 km. At least the Dacia Sandrider crew will be able to take advantage of a very distant position on the road to maintain hope.

“The terrain is really hard”concludes Nasser Al-Attiyah.“We'll see tomorrow, we're still in the game and we'll do our best, with 200 km which will be tough, but we have a good starting position.”