Dakar 2023 – Sven Quandt (Audi) tackles Nasser Al-Attiyah: “Is this worthy of a real sportsman? »

Le Dakar Rally 2023 will be played in the desert of Saudi Arabia, but also on non-sporting grounds. The decision of officials re-evaluate the power of Audi upwards RS Q e-tron hybrids on the evening of the 4th stage brought the clan off its hinges Toyota, led by the leaders of the event, Nasser Al-Attiyah and Mathieu Baumel.

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If the Swede Mattias Ekström (Audi) took the trouble to respond to the French co-driver on Instagram, it was his boss Sven Quandt who used the social network to react to the angry message from the Qatari title holder.

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« You can argue about this as much as you want, but it has been decided by all the top teams, including Toyota, to accept whatever the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FFI)FIA) would decide”, writes the team principal of Q Motorsport, the operating team of Audi in rally-raid.

“If this decision would have been in favor of another team, Audi would have accepted it. Before anyone writes a comment similar to that of Nasser (Al-Attiyah), talk to your team bosses at Toyota because we all agreed on this principle, and without getting into controversy. »

Sven Quandt, founder of the X-Raid team and who led Nasser Al-Attiyah to his first success on a Dakar with Mini in 2015, ends his message with a well-felt tackle against his opponent. “By the way, you are leading the race with an 18 minute lead and you explained to everyone at the pre-Dakar 2023 press conference that you knew about the Empty Quarter (Quart-Vide, desert of dunes which will be crossed during the marathon stage in the second week. Editor's note) like your pocket. Now you're already complaining! Is this worthy of a real athlete? »

So this is the big rally-raid family?