Loeb plans fight to the finish in Desert Challenge after BRX setback

TDT | Manama                      

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com   

Sebastien Loeb plans a fight to the finish in the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge after his hopes of a first victory in the event for Bahrain Raid Xtreme ended in frustration yesterday.

Loeb and Fabian Lurquin in the BRX Prodrive Hunter were halted by mechanical problems on the rally’s first demanding desert stage and lost their lead in the World Rally-Raid Championship (W2RC) to Nasser Al Attiyah, who was fastest on the day to hold the outright lead in his Toyota.

A cooling hose problem on the 242-km stage between Al Dhannah city and Qasr Al Sarab forced Loeb to return directly to the bivouac.

BRX technicians will spend the night assessing the problem, with the intention that the Prodrive Hunter returns to action today.

The nine-time World Rally Champion immediately set his sights on the next four stages and the chance to win valuable points in the race for the W2RC driver and team titles.

Loeb said, “We’ve been looking forward to this rally to continue our speed from Dakar, and all was going well but then the water temperature rose and we stopped before it was too high.

“A damaged water pipe is something we’ve never seen before over the three years of this BRX programme so that’s really bad luck for us as title leaders with a focus to win this rally. We will continue tomorrow for the stage points as they’re always important.”

Overall leader and defending world and Desert Challenge champion Al Attiyah won the stage by 6 mins 5 secs from Saudi Arabia’s Yazeed Al Rajhi, with South African Henk Lategan taking third place in another Toyota.

Czech Martin Prokop in a Ford Raptor, Argentina’s Juan Yacopini in a Toyota and Denis Krotov at the wheel of a Mini completed the top six Guerlain Chicherit, second fastest on Sunday’s Prologue in another Prodrive Hunter and lying third in the W2RC, also dropped from contention when he fell ill on the stage.

He managed to complete the tough passage through the dunes, but withdrew from the rally in order to fully recover.

“I’ve worked hard on getting better all of this from Dakar so to have it again is really frustrating. I thought I was ok and had recovered, but clearly not. I really thought I was ok for the first few kilometres today but it’s very strange as it’s only a certain type of dune where I start to feel ill again.

Maybe I could continue tomorrow, but I want to fix this once and for all so I can be fast again behind the wheel as I know Alex and I have the speed with the Hunter,” Chicherit commented. BRX Team Principal, Gus Beteli said, “That was a bad luck day, but that’s how it is in the world of motorsport sometimes.

We had the water pipe problem that we’ve never seen before over all the thousands of kilometres of testing and competition we’ve done, but that’s another step on the learning curve for us.

“We’ll get the car ready for tomorrow and attack these stages here in Abu Dhabi to get as many Championship points as we can. Guerlain’s car was perfect so it’s such a shame for him to feel sick in the dunes even after the treatment he’s had after Dakar so we wish him well to recover for Mexico.”