Rally-Raid

ADDC, Prologue – First weak advantage for Al-Attiyah-Baumel

Nasser Al-Attiyah beat the Hunter 4x4s of Guerlain Chicherit and Sébastien Loeb during the prologue of the 2nd round of the 2 W2023RC season.

Published on 26/02/2023 à 15:05

Medhi Casaurang

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ADDC, Prologue – First weak advantage for Al-Attiyah-Baumel

The Toyota Hilux of Al-Attiyah-Baumel on the ADDC 2023. © DPPI / Bastien Roux

The 32nd edition of the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge (ADDC) launches this Sunday, February 26. The event, which serves as the second round of the World Championship of rally-raid (W2RC) is well on its way to offering a new match between the two star crews of the discipline: Nasser Al-Attiyah-Mathieu Baumel (Toyota) and Sébastien Loeb-Fabian Lurquin (Bahrain Raid Xtreme).

The prologue, which took place this Sunday near Al Dannah, was only 6 km long but allowed the competitors to get their bearings in the desert. We will hardly be surprised to see Nasser Al-Attiyah set the best time; the Qatari, reigning world champion and winner of the 2023 Dakar, will thus be the last driver in the top 10 to be able to choose his starting order for the first stage scheduled for Monday.

The leader of Toyota Gazoo Racing was 4 seconds ahead of Frenchman Guerlain Chicherit (GCK Motorsport). “It was a perfect prologue, until I turned left when I should have taken a right, said the Habs. The dust did not settle, visibility was reduced, hence my mistake. Without that, I could certainly win the prologue. »

Second in the last Dakar, Sébastien Loeb ranks with the 3rd best time, 10 seconds behind Al-Attiyah. “ It was difficult to optimize everything today, declared the Alsatian. We had to not be disturbed by the lines of bikers who had left before us. It was a decent prologue, the ground was soft, I was able to cut some corners, but I have to believe that some were even more offensive in this area. »

ALSO READ > W2RC – The Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge towards a new Al-Attiyah-Loeb duel?

Yazeed Al-Rajhi (Toyota) is fourth. In class T3, the young American Seth Quintero (Red Bull Off-Road Junior Team) leads the peloton ahead of Mitch Guthrie by 1 second. Switched to a Can-Am T3 to continue his learning of rally-raid while waiting for Audi to soon return to W2RC, Mattias Ekström sets the 8th time 18 seconds from Quintero.

The first stage of the ADDC will take place on Monday February 26 between Al Dannah and Qasr Al Sarab over 257 km timed.

ADDC 2023 Prologue Ranking:

Medhi Casaurang

Passionate about the history of motorsport across all disciplines, I learned to read thanks to AUTOhebdo. At least that's what my parents tell everyone when they see my name inside!

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