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Sébastien Loeb versus Nasser Al-Attiyah is without doubt one of the most distinguished rivalries in rally raid, even with the 2 now colleagues at Prodrive. They renewed their pleasant feud on Thursday when Al-Attiyah narrowly beat Loeb for the BP Final Rally-Raid Stage #2 win, however there’s a twist: Loeb is racing a Challenger automobile.
With Prodrive’s Bahrain Raid Xtreme not coming into the remainder of the season post-Dakar Rally as they put together to transition to Dacia, Loeb elected to drop down from Final to Challenger for Portugal, racing a Taurus T3 Max for Purple Bull Off-Highway Junior Group and BBR Motorsport. After ending fourth in school in Stage #1, Loeb’s confidence and luxury in his new journey skyrocketed the subsequent day as he set the second quickest time amongst all FIA entrants no matter class and solely thirty-five seconds behind Al-Attiyah’s Prodrive Hunter.
Had Loeb closed the half-minute hole, he would have been the primary ever Challenger (previously T3) driver to win an FIA stage outright beneath W2RC sanction. Even when not FIA-wide, he nonetheless claimed the Challenger win by over 4 minutes on Taurus ally Nicolás Cavigliasso and now leads the category total by 3:54 over João Dias.
Al-Attiyah, who gained the Prologue, spent many of the day chasing down Saood Variawa till the latter obtained a thirty-minute rushing penalty. The infraction added insult to damage for Toyota, whose Fall Man duo of Stage #1 victor Guerlain Chicherit and Guillaume de Mévius have been compelled to retire with mechanical failures; Chicherit misplaced ten minutes whereas attempting to cross a ford round a stranded bike rider then crashed right into a tree stump.
Portugal native Sebastian Bühler scored his first profession W2RC stage win to maneuver as much as second within the RallyGP total, trailing Tosha Schareina by lower than three minutes.
“I attempted to push proper from the start as a result of I considerably know the terrain and prefer it a lot, but it surely had numerous water on the tracks because of the rains, so I needed to hold it secure as nicely,” stated Bühler. “Anyway, it turned out nicely ultimately, and I’m joyful to win the stage and regain a while which I misplaced yesterday.”
Rally2’s Bradley Cox, who almost did what Loeb got here up brief in when he set the quickest time within the first stage regardless of being in a decrease division solely to be penalised, rebounded by ending twenty-two seconds behind Bruno Santos on Thursday. Nevertheless, his twenty-minute penalty from yesterday nonetheless lingers within the total as he sits seventh and twelve minutes again.
After crashing in Stage #1, Harith Noah‘s tough week continued as he retired with a mechanical challenge after forty kilometres.
The beginning of the stage was delayed by an hour as a result of fog that grounded medical helicopters, whereas poor observe circumstances stemming from heavy rain the earlier week compelled the rest to be cancelled. Those that didn’t attain the end, together with the lone Inventory and Open drivers Carlos Jorge Mendes and Johan Senders in addition to all people in Nationwide, obtained notational instances.
“The day was historically moist, the observe was slim. The worst factor was that I obtained caught in a single puddle. The truth is, a winch would have helped there,” commented Quad rider Antanas Kanopkinas, who completed fourth in school. “There have been many bikes caught in a single place, so I needed to improvise however the improvisation didn’t work. The whole lot was going nicely till that second, however I wasted about a few minutes there, after which I used to be a bit of bit distracted afterwards.”
Stage #2 winners
Leaders after Stage #2
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