Just over a month after the end of the Dakar, the duel between Al Attiyah and Loeb continues in the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge, the second round of the W2RC in which the Qatari starts in front by taking a slight advantage in the prologue compared to what will be his great rival, on paper. And it is that, after the first 6.7 timed kilometers on the outskirts of Al Dhannah, a BRX seconded the Toyota that starts leading the test, but it was not the Frenchman’s, but his partner Chicherit’s.
Even in such a short run, Loeb was in charge of opening the track in his category and that penalized him slightly by giving up ten seconds with Al Attiyah, who was no more than four ahead of Chicherit, although I’m sure Nasser will be much more aware of what Sebastien does from now on than of his BRX teammate. Al Rajhi also finished close to this trio a second behind Loeb. In T3, the differences were even smaller with the top three, Quintero, Guthrie and Cristina Gutiérrez, separated by two seconds.
And on two wheels Honda begins setting the pace with Quintanilla and Van Beveren in the first two positions, with two seconds between them and the KTMs of Price and Klein behind at five and eight seconds respectively in a category in which the list of favorites is more numerous. However, it will not be until Monday’s stage, the first of five with 404 kilometers (242 of special) between Al Dhannah and Qsar Al Sarab, when the differences really begin to count.
Results of the prologue in cars and motorcycles
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