With a tire problem early on, the Brazilian fell to 23rd and came in 3rd, remaining in second place in the overall standings. World Rally Championship race had 3rd winner and 3rd points leader in 3 days of competition
Brazilian Lucas Moraes surprised once again in the race for good results in the 34th edition of the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge, the second stage of the World Rally Raid Championship, which is being held in the deserts of the United Arab Emirates. Together with navigator Armand Monleón, Moraes was forced to change a tire on his Toyota GR DKR Hilux as early as 500 meters into the 237km special on Tuesday (25). As a result, the duo dropped to 23rd place at the end of the first of the seven stages. From then on, Moraes and Monleón made a recovery run to finish in third place, just one second behind the runners-up in today's stage, Seth Quintero (USA) and Dennis Zenz (Germany).
The duo formed by Nasser Al-Attiyah from Santa Catarina and Edouard Boulanger from France took their Dacia SandRider to first place in today's special, becoming the third different winner in three days of racing. They also became the third duo to lead the overall standings after three days - the others were Moraes/Monleón on the first day and Sébastien Loeb (France)/Fabian Furquin (Belgium) on the second. With today's result, Moraes/Monleón remain in second place, just 49s behind Al-Attiyah/Boulanger, with Loeb/Furquin dropping to third.
Progression - From the tire problem, 500 meters after the start, the Brazilians began a progression that excited their team, as the split times (reference points that record the position of each competitor) showed: at km 25, Moraes and Monleón were in 23rd place. They then moved up to 12th (km 81), 9th (km 116), 5th (km 151), 4th (km 200) and 3rd (km 237) - the latter just one second behind the runner-up.
“As always, Armand and I set off focused on doing our best and it was a real shock to have a flat tire so early on, just 500 meters after the start. But we didn't let it get us down,” says Moraes. “We remained focused, now on having a race that wouldn't leave us far behind the leaders - and we did it! It's important to note that the car behaved very well and Armand's navigation was very good, which gave us the peace of mind to make the right decisions at key moments. It's incredible to be fighting for the top spot with a legend like Loeb and a desert specialist like Nasser. Two years ago, this wouldn't have happened even in my best dreams,” said the Brazilian driver, who has been one of the sensations of the World Championship and the Dakar Rally. Sébastien Loeb is a nine-time world speed rally champion and Nasser Al-Attiyah has won five editions of the Dakar.
So far, the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge has covered 708km of stages. There are still 467km to go, with 300 of them to be covered tomorrow and 167 on Thursday. By the finish, the competitors will have covered a total of 1,186 timed kilometers.
Automatic translation of the Portuguese version
Source: BestPR
