Stage 2 – Al-Attiyah-Baumel respond to the Minis

Winners of the Prologue, Nasser Al-Attiyah and Mathieu Baumel (Toyota) avaient concédé un peu de temps lors de l’entame du Dakar 2021 en raison d’une crevaison et d’un bug de road-book numérique.

The Qatari-French duo, aboard their Toyota Hilux 4×4, kindly followed the Mini buggies of Stéphane Peterhansel and Carlos Sainz, before making their effort after 300 km (out of a total of 457). There is no doubt that the first dunes of the route on Monday January 4 must have whetted the appetite of the prince of the desert, holder of three Dakars!

First leaders of the event the day before, Carlos Sainz and Lucas Cruz lost not only their internal duel against Stéphane Peterhansel and Édouard Boulanger, but also the controls of the competition. The defending champions slip to third place after a loss of 9'17'' to Al-Attiyah-Baumel, almost as much as their delay overall (+9'14'') to Peterhansel-Boulanger.

That's how you deal with the dunes.

@CSainz_oficial # Dakar2021 pic.twitter.com/oe4FqeZfPM

- DAKAR RALLY (@dakar) January 4, 2021

Indeed, the French association, which is experiencing its first Dakar together, led the Mini of Team X-Raid to the role of leader after two days, without winning a stage but without making a mistake. A strategy that suits Mr. Dakar well (13 successes, Motorcycle and Auto included), the king of regularity in all circumstances.

The first French driver classified is Matthew Serradori, which confirms the good form of the Century V8 buggies with the fifth time (+10'27''). In bad shape yesterday with a disbursement of 20 minutes, the local of the event Yazeed Al-Rajhi finished fourth.

As for Sébastien Loeb and Daniel Elena (BRX), their new Hunter is close to the top 5 with a slower time of 16'53''. A good result afterwards the difficult day they went through on Sunday, especially since Nani Roma and Alex Winocq concede more than half an hour! Same sanction for the winner of the 2009 edition Giniel de Villiers (Toyota). Martin Prokop (Ford) finally lost three quarters of an hour while he was keeping things going in circles on Sunday (3rd).

Ranking 2rd stage:

General ranking after 2rd stage: