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This is the single-news section of the
marathonrally.com rally-live special of the UAE Desert Challenge 2006. To navigate please use the upper or right Navigation Bar.
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UAE Desert Challenge: Al Attiyah takes second fastest time today.
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Qatar´s Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah and French co-driver Alain Guehennec will start the final day of the 2006 UAE Desert Challenge in fifth place, courtesy of setting the second fastest time behind Spain´s Carlos Sainz in the longest selective section of the entire event on Thursday. Starting from fourth place on the stage this morning, the Qatari was the fastest driver at the first passage control, 45 seconds quicker than a tying Carlos Sainz and event leader Luc Alphand.
Through PC2, where some teams were able to benefit from refuelling during the 15-minute stop, Al-Attiyah was still the quickest driver on the special, 1m 24s quicker than Frenchman Stéphane Peterhansel. He maintained his lead at PC3, as the leading group of Peterhansel, Alphand, Sainz and Al-Attiyah arrived at the control in a procession. Al-Attiyah arrived at the stage finish just behind his Spanish rival to give the X-Raid team another excellent stage finish. "The car is working really well," said Al-Attiyah. "It is a good test for us for the Dakar. I showed again that we are on the same pace as the VW and the Mitsubishi."
Germany´s Jutta Kleinschmidt and Swedish co-driver Tina Thoerner started the day in sixth position, realistically out of reach of their team mates unless the recently-crowned FIA Middle East rally champion hit trouble. Jutta was sixth through PC1 and seventh at PC2, but she reached the stage finish in seventh to maintain sixth place in the overall results.
Spaniard José-Luis Monterde and Belgian co-driver Jean-Marie Lurquin began the penultimate section in seventh overall but dropped over two minutes to the pursuing Hiroshi Masuoka early in the selective and slipped behind the factory Mitsubishi driver at the end of the stage."
"Nasser showed today that for up until the last 100 kms of the stage he was the fastest driver and our car was more than a match for our rivals," said X-Raid Team Director Sven Quandt. "It has been very close today and I am more than happy with the team´s performance. I did not expect to have three cars running so competitively inside the top eight at this point. So it proves that we are making progress."
2006/11/09 | 15:22 CET | Editor: UAE Live Team, X-Raid
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