FIA-FIM WORLD RALLY-RAID CHAMPIONSHIPS ABU DHABI DESERT CHALLENGE — ROUND 2
The Brazilian is the only driver to have finished in the top three on every day of the competition and is in second place with 167km to go until the end on Thursday.
It was 300 kilometers of adrenaline and tension. This Wednesday (26) was a day of intense dueling between Brazilian Lucas Moraes and Nasser Al-Attiyah from Santa Catarina during the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge, the 34th edition of the event, which is valid as the second stage of the World Rally Raid Championship - the version of off-road that also includes the Dakar Rally and the Sertões Rally.
Despite the long distance, covered in the dunes of the deserts of the United Arab Emirates, the finish saw Moraes cut just eight seconds off Al-Attiyah's lead, which until yesterday was 49 seconds. Now, with just 167km to go to complete the race's more than 1,000 kilometers, the pair will decide tomorrow who will be the new champions of this race, considered one of the toughest in the world.
Lucas Moraes, who is driving a Toyota GR DKR Hilux navigated by Spaniard Armand Monleón, is the only driver so far to have finished in the top three on every day of the race, which began last Sunday - the day on which the Brazilian won. On Wednesday, Lucas crossed the finish line in second place, with Al-Attiyah, who is a five-time Dakar champion and is considered to be the world's greatest desert racing specialist, finishing in third place. The man from Santa Catarina is joined by French navigator Edouard Boulanger in a Dacia SandRider.
All or nothing - The day's victory went to Erik Goczal (Poland) and Oriol Mena (Spain), who drove a Toyota Overdrive and, after 300km, finished just 2min29s ahead of Moraes and Monleón. Al-Attiyah and Boulanger finished 2min37s behind the winners. With this result, Al-Attiyah and Boulanger lead the competition with a time of 12h22min30s for the 1,021km covered so far. Forty-one seconds behind, Moraes and Monleón are going for all or nothing in Thursday's special, which will close the race.
“It was a very tense day overall, because we knew we had to finish ahead of Nasser. We got bogged down at one point and until we managed to get the car out of the dune we suffered a little with the prospect of our result not being good. But from then on we gave everything we could. We took good time from the frontrunners and moved ahead of Nasser and Boulanger, which was our goal. Now it's all about the last few kilometers on Thursday. It's all or nothing again, because that's the only way to win this race,” said the Brazilian. The Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge has a total of 1,186km of timed sections.
Automatic translation of the Portuguese version
Source: BestPR
