Stage 8 – Al-Attiyah-Baumel’s burst of pride against Peterhansel-Boulanger

Nasser Al-Attiyah and Mathieu Baumel (Toyota) may have enjoyed the sea air on Monday January 11th. The Qatari-French duo reversed a poorly started trend the day before by winning their fourth stage in this Dakar 2021, between Sakaka and Neom, on the edge of the Red Sea.

The three-time winner of the rally-raid was plagued halfway through the marathon stage against terrain favorable to the buggies of the X-Raid team, and obviously unfavorable to the 4×4 system of its Hilux. We must believe that the sandy then stony tracks of the day were more suitable, or that the Prince of the desert has regained all his vista.

The day's event was played out in seconds against Carlos Sainz and Lucas Cruz (Mini). The Spaniards failed by 52'', but the sensation of the day concerned their teammates Stéphane Peterhansel and Édouard Boulanger. The French crew, who repaired as best they could a damaged right rear suspension the evening before (the marathon stage prohibiting the usual assistance), haveunexplainably lowered the cadence after 300 km (out of a total of 375 km).

Leaders since the second stage, Peterhansel-Boulanger finished 3'03'' behind the official Toyota. The general classification is seriously disrupted because Al-Attiyah-Baumel are only 4'50'' behind with only four special stages remaining!

The “very good” rating goes to the Abu Dhabi Racing team, under which is the French trainer PH Sport. Khalid Al Qassimi and Xavier Panseri finished just off the day's podium, 5'' ahead of their prestigious teammates Cyril Despres and Mike Horn.

In the Bahrain Raid Xtreme clan, the house is valiantly held by Nani Roma and Alexandre Winocq. The winner in Moto (2004) and Auto (2014) remains 5th overall while Sébastien Loeb and Daniel Elena left this morning with a mechanical in pieces. No surprise then to learn of their stop at km 81 due to two punctures, even though they no longer have a spare wheel.

We left for a tour with only:

– 3 brake calipers
– 1 spare wheel
– 1 single cylinder
– 0 assistance truck which unfortunately also broke down and was unable to reach us

Objective of the day: try to reach the bivouac this evening pic.twitter.com/rfBpzyYNW6

— Daniel Elena (@DanosElena) January 11, 2021

Find it in AUTO issue 2299hebdo, on sale Monday evening digitally and Wednesday on newsstands, the decryption of the Dakar 2021 by our special correspondent and our tribute to Hubert Auriol.

Stage classification:

Provisional general ranking: