There is reason to be satisfied in the Dacia clan at the finish of this Rally of Morocco. For its first participation in a rally raid with the Sandrider, the team achieves the double with the victory of Nasser Al-Attiyah and the second place of Sébastien Loeb. The Alsatian, accompanied by Fabian Lurquin in the right seat, finished 5’10 behind his teammate with two stage victories to his credit, the last of which took place this Friday. An almost perfect rally, marred only by an error during the Prologue and a broken steering arm during the first stage, which caused the Franco-Belgian duo to lose around ten minutes.
“I’m happy to have lost because in general, whoever wins the Morocco Rally doesn’t win the Dakar… and with a view to the Dakar, it’s perfect, ironise Fabian Lurquin. The breakage of the link in the first stage prevented us [de nous battre pour la victoire face à Nasser Al-Attiyah]. It’s only five minutes ago [d’écart]there has almost never been a Rally of Morocco where it was decided by so few. The level of cars and crews is so homogenous that it really comes down to details. »
The rally-raid has become a Sprint, believes Lurquin
“We will have to work to be the best possible in the details,” underlines the Belgian co-pilotwho believes that the competition is sharper than ever in W2RC. We will continue to work because we know that the others will not sit around doing nothing. But at the same time, it’s nice not to rest on your laurels, to look for ways to improve personally and as a team. It’s motivating. »
« [Il me faut] pmore precision, more regularity, check with the road book if we can cut bigger thingshe concludes by making his self-criticism. Being able to do all that without making a mistake is already great, but you have to try to work on details to be better than the others. It’s a sprint… a long sprint, but still! Before it was rally raid, now it’s rally… in the desert! » He has less than three months left to adjust his ropes with Sébastien Loeb to achieve a first victory in the Dakar (January 3-17).
READ ALSO > Morocco Rally – Sébastien Loeb delighted by the Dacia double: “Everything is on the right track for the Dakar”
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