Rally-Raid
Dakar 2024 – How Stéphane Peterhansel missed his Prologue: “We were a little to the west”
Overtaking from the outside! Photo DPPI / Antonin Vincent
Normally, finishing ahead of big names like Nasser Al-Attiyah (Prodrive), Carlos Sainz (Audi) or Yazeed Al-Rajhi (Toyota) could make Stéphane Peterhansel (Audi) smile. But the Frenchman did not mince his words at the arrival of the prologue of the Dakar 2024, this Friday January 5. “I'm not happy at all. We went a little west. »
ALSO READ > Dakar 2024 – Stéphane Peterhansel’s secrets: “The designers of the Audi are no longer there”
Why does the man with 14 hits on the rally-is raid so hard on himself? His seventh time recorded on the 27 km course was the result of poor tactics. “ The idea was either to finish among the very first, or to be just beyond the top 10, he explains. We are 7th. This is not a good starting position for tomorrow because I expect to have to start 4th, and therefore very quickly I will have to open the special; This is a bad strategy. » Indeed, to be able to start from the bottom of the top 10, the simplest would have been for “Mr. Dakar Rally » to finish 1st (he would thus have been the last man in the top 10 to choose his starting location), or 2nd, or even 3rd.
“We left thinking that we were going to have a good time so that we could choose our starting place for tomorrow, confirms Stéphane Peterhansel. Except that 5 km from the finish, I did not see a connection (branch) and I did 300, 400 meters on the wrong track. I lost 20 seconds. »
The record holder for victories on the Dakar was disrupted. “From that moment on, my butt was between two chairs. Either I kept pushing or I wasted more time to really leave behind tomorrow (outside the top 10. Editor’s note). So, I decided to stop for 40 seconds. Okay, we're somewhere in between. We'll see, but it could be important... It's poor time management, we didn't know what the others were doing. »
There is at least one positive point about this day. “The car responds well. I have a good feeling with the suspensions, I feel confident. » What about the words of Nasser Al-Attiyah, who assures that the hybrid Audis will return home after three stages? “I hope that we will make Nasser lie, even if we are not sure of that either. »
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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