Nasser Al Attiyah: “I was really scared all the way”

Dakar 2022 | Stage 8 | AL DUWADIMI > HAIL
January 10 ^th 2022 - 14:47 [GMT + 3]

On a stage disrupted by mechanical problems, the general rankings leader can be happy with limiting his loss of time: only 7 minutes lost to Sébastien Loeb, his nearest pursuer.

“For 350 km we one puncture and then we only had front-wheel drive because we broke the rear. I was really scared all the way. On the last part I said, ‘I don’t care, on the last fifty kilometres I will try to push a little bit’. But it was not easy with just the front-wheel drive. I’m really lucky to be here and we only lost seven minutes to Seb. For the speed, we needed to go slow, but there was a small part broken inside and a lot of noise. That’s what we had to manage all the way, but we are lucky to be here. Of course I was scared, because we have done a very good job from the beginning and now if we start to have problems… I think we need to sit down with the team a little bit to see why it happened. It’s a new rear differential, we only added it yesterday. I think there was something wrong with the fitting, but we’ll see now what the mechanic will say. The Dakar is never finished, you know? We’ll try to respect the Dakar. The Dakar is the Dakar”.