An enlightened bivouac enthusiast had planned everything. Before the start of the 2nd stage of the 2024 Morocco Rally, Nasser Al-Attiyah (Dacia) and Yazeed Al-Rajhi (Toyota Overdrive) were going to chat. The two men are claiming the W2RC world title in this event and had respectively set the 1st and 2nd time of the first stage. That is to say, they were going to follow each other directly into the desert.
« Nasser was going to talk with him to destabilize him, take his attention and distract him just before the start. », explained this character from the bivouac to us. “ That’s exactly what happened. »
Disconcerted by Al-Attiyah’s attitude, Al-Rajhi was not up to par on the second stage. Nothing worked in his favor, while his Qatari rival finished 2nd and gained valuable points to take an even further lead in the championship.
« It wasn’t our day, commented Al-Rajhi, only 10th in the stage. We got lost after about fifty kilometers. We took a sharp left turn and went the wrong way. We went 1.7 km in the wrong direction, then 1.7 km back, which cost us 4 minutes.
Then, after 90 km, we entered the dunes and took the wrong direction, which caused us to lose a lot of time. Before the finish we had a puncture. In total, we lost 12 minutes in this stage, which is way too much.
The positive side is that tomorrow (Wednesday) we have a good starting position (laughs), so we will try to do something good. »
In the championship, Yazeed Al-Rajhi must pull himself together at all costs to not only finish ahead of Al-Attiyah in the rally standings next Friday, but also score points by winning special stages. Everything remains playable because 40 points are up for grabs at the end of stage 3 scheduled for this Wednesday: 30 for victory in the rally, 10 for the two remaining stages (each special stage won earns 5 points). The gap between the two men is 30 points.
It is common for Yazeed Al-Rajhi to lose control when the situation requires his full involvement. On the 2024 Dakar, he led the race at the start of the tough 48 Hours Chrono stage in the dunes of the Saudi Empty Quarter, ahead of Al-Attiyah. Author of XXL partials on his rivals 100 km after kick-off, he left in a spectacular series of rolls and retired. The watchword, however, was to ride “inside” and avoid obstacles.
There are plenty of examples like this. Which makes our mystery interlocutor say: “ Between the two of them (Al-Attiyah and Al-Rahi), it’s like a romantic relationship. Sometimes there can be a dominant and a dominated; I’ll let you be the judge… »
READ ALSO > Rallye du Maroc – Nasser Al-Attiyah (Dacia): “We are learning a lot”
