On the Dakar 2021, Peterhansel widens the gap: "You have to have strong nerves"

Since the start of the rally-raid in Saudi Arabia, Stéphane Peterhansel had not yet won a stage.

At the wheel of his Mini, “Monsieur Dakar” had a double blow this Tuesday on the 579 km loop (including 465 km of special) at the start and finish of Neom.

The French, who has thirteen successes on the clock in motorcycles (6) and cars (7), the last in 2017, won for the first time in this 43rd edition (in 4h50'27), relegating to nearly 18 minutes Nasser Al-Attiyah (Toyota), his main rival.

The Qatari, triple winner of the event and already winner of five stages, lost twelve minutes on the shores of the Red Sea.

“We didn't have a problem with the navigation, but we had three punctures and we didn't have a spare tire, so we calmed the pace,” he explains.

Stéphane passed us, but what could we do?

I'm not disappointed, that's life, I did my best and I'm at the finish.

But everything remains possible.

"

"To waste time trying to gain some later"

Too accustomed to the vagaries of the race, the pilot from Vesoul (Haute-Saône) is not yet claiming victory.

But he knows he has struck a big blow with only three stages left before the finish in Jeddah on Saturday.

“It was the most complete… apart from the dunes, there was everything,” says Peterhansel.

We realized it from the start and we calmed down because there were a lot of stones and we wanted to avoid punctures, we said to ourselves that it was not going to hold.

We caught up with Carlos Sainz who had a puncture, we caught up with Nasser who had punctured.

We made every effort to drive clean… ”

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Experience, always experience.

At 55, the Habs leave nothing to chance.

“It was a real Dakar day where it is not only the speed that counts, there is the management of kilometers, mechanics, tires… A bit of what we could know in Africa, he continues. .

I was good where it got very complicated, when everyone started messing around, and that's what happened again today.

You have to have strong nerves, waste time trying to gain more later.

"For now, it's a win-win ...