Al-Attiyah hits trouble on Dakar opener

1st January 2012

Nasser Al-Attiyah's hopes of taking back to back Dakar Rally victories in different machinery have hit an early stumbling block when his Hummer came to a halt on the opening stage.

The World Rally Championship regular had set the early pace on the stage, but stopped with oil pressure issues two kilometres from the finish of the relatively gentle 57km Mar del Plata to Santa Rosa de la Pampa opener. Team leader Robby Gordon towed Al-Attiyah's car the rest of the way, leaving last year's victor 9m45s off the lead already.

"We had an engine oil pressure loss and preferred to wait for Robby to tow us to the finish, since we did not want to damage the engine," said Al-Attiyah.

"We will see, but this does not look good... And, whatever happens, this is not a good way to start the Dakar."

The X-Raid team's Minis lead at present, with Leonid Novitskiy up front ahead of Krzysztof Holowczyc and Stephane Peterhansel, the trio currently covered by just nine seconds but with the serious action yet to commence.