It’s always interesting the fight between Nasser Al Attiyha who tries to attack and Yazeed Al Rajhi that does not seem to cede not even a millimeter. Even today Saudi pilot riding Toyota, was the fastest even if just for 44 seconds on Qatar driver. Moreover, he still also has in general ranking eight minutes advantage on Al Attiyah, a consistent advantage but not so strong to let him sleep soundly until Pyramids.
Third today Dutch Erik Van Loon, who’s fighting for podium with Marek Dabrowski. Dutch regained nine minutes on Polish that has now an advantage of ten minutes. Problems again today for Russian Vladimir Vasilyev: World Cup leader got stuck in the sand. Then he had turbo problems and reached the finish line almost one hour after Al Rajhi.
Pharaons final act tomorrow will bring caravan to Giza Pyramids where 2014 winners will be crowned. There will be a special stage of 326 km before the final transfer in Egyptian capital.
Nasser Al Attiyah: “Stage was good, we did not made any navigation mistake but Yazeed today was faster, maybe because we had to open the track. Today stage was very beautiful again, with sand, stones and very fast parts. Tomorrow we’ll have the last 300 km, everything can still happen and we’ll make our best to get it.”
Yazeed al Rajhi: “I rode as fast as possible as I did not want to give Nasser the hope to reach me. If we do not make any mistake tomorrow, we’ll have the opportunity of winning: if Nasser would reach us, it will be sufficient to control him.
Marek Dabrowski: “Today I’ve tried to do my best, but we collected a big delay from Van Loon . It seemed to be well done, but chronometer says the opposite.”
Van Loon: “I’m happy about today result, track was very fast with some slow stretches, beautiful landscapes and during the last 50 km. it seemed to be a WRC stage. It has been hard for the body with lots of jumps, we landed on the nose twice. It’s the second competition with Mini and we still have to become totally confident with the car.”
