Sheikh Khalid battles odds to stay inside top ten of Dakar Rally

Sport360 staff 13:42 13/01/2018
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Mail
  • Pinterest
  • LinkedIn
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • WhatsApp
  • Pinterest
  • LinkedIn
  • Abu Dhabi Racing and Peugeot Middle East official driver Sheikh Khalid bin Faisal Al Qassimi, behind the wheel of a 3008 DKR Maxi, with co-driver Xavier Panseri, stayed inside the top 10 on completion of the Arequipa/La Paz stage of the Dakar Rally. Al Qassimi ended the day in eighth overall.

    The stage comprised 447km of liaison and 313 km of special stages and is generally considered the toughest stage in the Dakar.

    Sheikh Khalid faced numerous problems and lost considerable time during the stage.

    With a much-deserved rest day yesterday, Sheikh Khalid said: “We started Thursday and had a bit of a problem on the first stage because we were at a very high altitude.

    “We felt that there was something wrong with the car. We thought it may be because of the altitude and the temperature as the car was very cold. We started the car and drove for about 10-15km and we noticed there is no power; the car could hardly reach 100kph.

    “Then the car stopped as it could not take any more throttle so we had to stop and try to reboot the car. So we waited for a while and tried again; the car started but was moving very slow.

    “Anyway, we finished the stage, we lost whatever we lost. We then drove about 200km of road section and crossed the border.

    “Another problem we had was a leak in the hydraulic. So we locked all the hydraulic pipes where we got assistance from Peugeot Sport driver Cyril Despres.

    “It was a very long and hectic day with a lot of problems with the turbo, the mechanical hydraulics, with the wipers, the flat tyre.

    “But still, we are not very bad in position. The team will now put the car together.”

    Next up is Stage 7, the La Paz-Uyuni stage (727 km).

    Recommended