AL ATTIYAH READY TO BLAZE THROUGH ARGENTINA
The capital of La Rioja, the first of the three provinces to host the Desafío Ruta 40 YPF, is slowly bringing back the buzz and fun of the Dakar in Latin America. Nasser Al Attiyah, the reigning world champion and current leader of the FIA championship, remains every bit as popular as he was in the second chapter of the Dakar nearly a decade ago, when he clinched three victories on the continent (2011, 2015 and 2019). Despite five years without DR40 or the Dakar in Argentina, the driver who went on to become a five-time winner of the Dakar has managed to keep his fans. 80% of them are still on the continent (see his quote)… including one who offered to fly the Qatari and his co-driver Mathieu Baumel to the bivouac in the Estadio Superdomo by helicopter the day before yesterday! A great way for the Toyota Gazoo Racing factory competitors to warm up their audience, who have been stopping them around the town and at the bivouac ever since they arrived to take pictures with them. What better way to thrill Nasser Al Attiyah than to give them a show by announcing his daring bet of winning the championship before the final, right here in Argentina? That is one of the challenges that he has set himself after winning two rounds of the championship (Dakar and Sonora Rally), not least because Sébastien Loeb and his BRX team are sitting out this leg. Yazeed Al Rajhi is nipping at his heels, 30 points adrift in the standings. To be crowned in Salta, Al Attiyah will have to pocket at least 25 points more than the Saudi to increase his lead to 55 points after four rounds. In this scenario, even if Al Rajhi managed to win the final event and its five stages in October, the current leader of the championship could go wild in the Rallye du Maroc. In fact, even a blank slate would give him a tie in points, with the edge going to the Qatari because he has won more rounds. More than enough to make the crowd want to come and cheer on the reigning world champion! For now, one thing is certain: the four Hiluxes entered in the championship by Toyota Gazoo Racing and Overdrive Racing enjoy numerical superiority over the Mini T1+ X-raid JCW of the Argentinian title holder Sebastián Halpern (2016 and 2018) and his co-driver Ronnie Graue, another two-time winner (2015 and 2017). In T3, the seven vehicles entered in W2RC by South Racing are also evenly matched with the X-raid Yamaha Supported Team driven by João Ferreira and the Can-Am by BBR driven by Claude Fournier. In T4, Shinsuke Umeda‘s Polaris Xtreme Plus is the only vehicle not facing the combined might of an armada.