Rally of Morocco – Nasser Al-Attiyah and Fabian Lurquin make things difficult for themselves

Arrived at the start of the Rally Morocco's Nasser Al-Attiyah (Dacia) is leading the World Rally Raid Championship (W2RC), and he started his quest for a fourth title on the wrong foot. Despite winning the Prologue, the Qatari finished the opening stage between Fez and Erfoud in 20th place, 12'40" behind Sébastien Loeb-Fabian Lurquin! 

How could such a deficit have occurred? Nasser Al-Attiyah recounts the breakdown. “After 200 km, we hit a small crevasse. We negotiated it in first gear, calmly, and then accelerated. Suddenly, there was play in the right front wheel. We stopped to see what the problem was. When we got out of the car, we discovered that the steering rod was damaged.”

Faced with this alert, Al-Attiyah-Lurquin preferred to play it safe and replace the damaged part. The cost of the operation: about twelve minutes. "It's not a good day. The stage wasn't easy to negotiate because we were following the motorcycles' tracks. Sometimes they jumped over the trickiest spots, and we couldn't keep up with them."

His co-driver, Fabian Lurquin, also spoke about the incident. "We were managing the mechanics, because we are only in the first stage and the rally is very long (5 steps. Editor’s note)The ground was very rough today. It wasn't the start to the race we wanted, but we're ready to move forward tomorrow."

Nasser Al-Attiyah will certainly put his heart into it. “Tomorrow we will go back into battle and attack.” There is no other choice if the duo wants to challenge the Toyota contenders for the Drivers' title. Lucas Moraes scored 3 points thanks to his 3rd fastest time. Henk Lategan collected 1 point (5th fastest time). The virtual World Championship standings W2RC This gives Moraes the new runner-up to Al-Attiyah, 7 points behind, and Lategan 8. Every kilometer will count around Erfoud, where the fourth FIA title in the history of the W2RC will be decided. 53 points are still up for grabs, including 3 in the Power Selective Section, a new feature introduced this year which will conclude the 2025 season on Friday.

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