Rallye du Maroc: Al Attiyah ‘delighted’ with his car

Qatar’s Nasser Al Attiyah and his co-driver Edouard Boulanger will begin Stage 1 of the 25th edition of the Rallye du Maroc in 14th place on Monday after finishing in the same position in the prologue on Sunday. The two-time world champion Al Attiyah holds a 20-point lead in the FIA World Rally-Raid championship title race over his closest rival Yazeed Al Rajhi going into the final round in Morocco. The Qatari has the edge, but is racing in a new vehicle for Dacia Sandriders. After the 73km prologue (25km timed) Al Attiyah admitted that he sandbagged a little. The Qatari took advantage of the fact that the prologue times do not count towards the FIA overall to fall back and avoid having to open the road for today’s 372km road section to Zagora. Al Attiyah said: "We tried to drive cleanly, but we also wanted to lose some time to start near the back tomorrow. It looks like we were far from the only ones who took this approach. I’m delighted with how the car performed. We made no mistakes. The car was on point despite leading from the front. Tomorrow’s going to be a long day.” Guerlain Chicherit (X-raid Mini JCW) set the fastest time in Prologue ahead of his teammate Joao Ferreira. Meanwhile, in the Challenger section Qatar’s Khalifa Al Attiyah was placed 13th, while Ahmed Al Kuwari was 17th. The pair of Abdulaziz Al Kuwari and Nasser Saadoon Al Kuwari were 18th. (TNN)