Dakar 2013 – Leg 4: Al-Attiyah ramps up the pressure

Nasser Al-Attiyah (Buggy) dominated proceedings today as the Dakar Rally travelled from Nazca to Arequipa, depriving Guerlain Chicherit (Buggy SMG) of stage victory by 36 seconds. Stéphane Peterhansel continues to lead overall, however, whilst Sainz, Alvarez and Gordon found themselves out of luck…

Leg 4: Nazca-Arequipa (717 km)

“I know these dunes, but still I was fearful of getting lost in them today,” confessed Nasser Al-Attiyah, winner of the 288km special stage, half of which took place in the dunes. “I was on my own from start to finish; I didn’t see anybody else or know how my time compared. The navigation really wasn’t easy, so Lucas deserves considerable credit.”

Behind the Red Bull Buggy, Stéphane Peterhansel (Mini/Michelin) played it safe: “We took no risks and made no mistakes. That’s a sensible approach to adopt at this stage of the rally; we’ll see later on if we need to push a bit harder.” Trailing Al-Attiyah by 1m17s today, Peterhansel has maintained his overall lead, 5m16s clear of his Qatari rival.

Al-Attiyah remained in the interview zone for some time afterwards, nervously awaiting the arrival of Frenchman Guerlain Chicherit, who – according to the intermediary checkpoints – had set the pace for much of the stage. When the N°309 SMG Buggy appeared, however, there was damage to the front suspension: “I was driving in Nani Roma’s dust and clouted a hole at Km130.” That time loss proved critical, as Guerlain ultimately missed out on the stage win by just 36 seconds.

Giniel de Villiers (Toyota/Michelin) was fourth fastest through the stage, ahead of Nani Roma, whilst Russian Leonid Novitskiy was forced to stop to fix a fuel supply issue. At the end, missing in action were Lucio Alvarez (Toyota) – more than three hours late at the Passage Control –, Carlos Sainz (Buggy), who stopped several times and consequently dropped more than two-and-a-half hours, and Robby Gordon, who rolled his Hummer in a dune at Km29.

Stage 4 classification:

1, Al-Attiyah/Cruz (Buggy), 3h28m36s. 2, Chicherit/Garcin (Buggy), +36s. 3, Peterhansel/Cottret (Mini), +1m17s. 4, De Villiers/Von Zitzewitz (Toyota), +4m17s. 5, Roma/Périn (Mini), +7m27s. Etc.

Provisional standings after Leg 4:

1, Peterhansel/Cottret (Mini), 9h4m29s. 2, Al-Attiyah/Cruz (Buggy), +5m16s. 3, De Villiers/Von Zitzewitz (Toyota), +33m22s. 4, Notvitskiy/Zhilstov (Mini), +33m48s. 5, Roma/Périn (Mini), +39m6s. Etc.