Second consecutive stage win for TGR in Abu Dhabi

A second consecutive stage win marked the progress of Nasser Al-Attiyah and Mathieu Baumel in the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge 2023. The pair started the stage as the first car on the road, but despite the challenge of finding the route, they took their Dakar-winning GR DKR Hilux T1+ to the finish line in a time of 3h 33m 39s, well ahead of their nearest competitors.

Stage 2 of the 2023 Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge saw crews complete a 106km road leg from the Qasr Al Sarab bivouac, before taking on a 257km timed leg, taking them back to the bivouac The terrain consisted mainly of dunes, with stretches of sandy tracks in between.

For Nasser and Mathieu, the day was no problem as they faced tricky navigation and challenging terrain en route to a second consecutive stage win. His closest competitors were again Yazeed Al Rajhi and co-driver Timo Gottschalk, in a privately entered Toyota Hilux T1+. His deficit to the TOYOTA GAZOO Racing crew was 12 minutes and 14 seconds. At the same time, Nasser and Mathieu’s win earned them 5 more points in the World Rally-Raid Championship (W2RC), thus increasing their lead over their nearest competitors to 8 points.

At the same time, teammates Henk and Brett ran into a boost-related problem in their car, opting to return to the bivouac to effect repairs ahead of tomorrow’s stage. They incurred the standard 5h penalty, effectively eliminating them from contention. This is a disappointing result as they were third after the second stage of the race. The technical crew will prepare the GR DKR Hilux T1+ in preparation for stage 3, and the crew will continue to fight for stage wins for the rest of the race.

This is followed by Stage 3, which will see the teams complete a road section of just 2km from the Qasr Al Sarab bivouac, before tackling a special 266km stage. As before, the terrain is expected to consist mainly of dunes and sandy tracks. A short 35km link will bring the crews back to the bivouac. The Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge 2023 will conclude on Friday, March 3 after five grueling stages.

QUOTES:
Nasser Al-Attiyah: “Today was a good stage, especially considering that we had to open the road. In some places the dunes were quite tricky, with very soft sand. We had a slow puncture for the final 40km, but decided to stick with it, rather than waste time stopping. Overall, we are very happy to end the day with a big lead in the general classification.”

Henk Lategan: “We were very pleased with our performance yesterday and were looking forward to building on our position during Stage 2. Unfortunately, we experienced a problem with our turbo boost shortly after the start of the stage. We stopped to investigate and tried to find the fault, but in the end we chose to go back to the bivouac rather than risk damaging the engine. The technical crew have solved the problem and we are looking forward to racing in stage 3 of this amazing event”.

RESULTS OF THE 2ND STAGE:

CLASSIFICATIONS AFTER THE 2ND STAGE: