Another hot day at Pharaons Rally, that left Nile Valley to go through the Libic Desert, in Dakhla oasis that hosted the first bivouac after the nights spent in hotel. Pharaons atmosphere has so begun in earness with a difficult special stage of 362,76 km, faced after a 244 km tranfer and started this morning at 11.
Temperatures over 47 degrees that made the day very difficult with lots of problems concerning dehydration especially for bikers.
Cars instead had to face wheel punctures, like the three happened to today winner Nasser Al Alattiyah or the two occurred to the general classification leader Yazeed al Rajhi.
Al Attiyah won with two minutes over the car brand companion Vladimir Vasilyev and with less than four minutes on Saudii Yazeed Al Rajhi, that remains at the top of the classification with two minutes over Vasilyev and nine over Al Attiyah.
INTERVIEWS Nasser Al Alattiyah: “Three spare wheels and three punctures. The first two inn the first 80 km, then on plateau full of rocks:, it has been a bit stressful and we have to pay the maxim attention. Third puncture occurred at 120 km from the arrival. We lost several time but after all we surprisingly arrived first.”
Yazeed Al Rajhi: “A good day but it has not been easy to open the track. We had two punctures and just two spare wheels, and that situation worries us a bit.After the first puncture Vasyliev passed us, then we changed position 5 or 6 times.By the end we arrived in front of him.”
Vladimir Vasilyev:” The most important ting is that we are at the end of this difficult stage and that we did not have problems by following our rhytm.We amused in fighting with Yazeed and it has been difficult to exit at the end of the stage from dunes that were really soft. Moreoverer air conditioning did not work and car was really hot.”
Photo: Pep Segalés