Qatar’s Nasser Saleh Al Attiyah wins sixth stage at Silk Way Rally
Dalanzadgad, Mongolia: Another day, and a dramatic one at that, at Silk Way Rally, but the winner was the same even though it was not smooth sailing this time for Qatar’s Nasser Saleh Al Attiyah.
Toyota Gazoo Racing Overdrive’s Al Attiyah lost his way towards the end, as did many other competitors, which allowed Denis Krotov to take lead for a good while in the sixth stage.
Al Attiyah and co-driver Mathieu Baumel missed three kilometres after the restart of the special but luckily for him, Krotov suffered a puncture and had to stop to change the wheel. Krotov then made blocked his gearbox completely while trying to reverse which allowed Nasser to rack up his sixth stage win.
“The special was difficult to navigate. You had to really pay attention. At certain points we hesitated, but in the end, everything worked out OK. It is the 6th victory on the trot for us. Tomorrow is relaxed – just 550 kilometres of liaison to go into China, where we will discover the dunes of the Gobi Desert,” said Al Attiyah.
Eric Van Loon (NL/Toyota Hilux Overdrive) finished second allowing the Overdrive Team to score another double. The Dutchman finally beat Mathieu Serradori (Buggy CR6 SRT) by just 10 seconds. Overall Al-Attiyah is now 40 minutes ahead of the Chinese driver Liu Kun (Hanwei SMG) and 50 minutes upon Jérôme Pélichet (Optimus Raid Lynx), eighth on today’s stage.
