Nasser Al Attiyah takes 3rd place in Dakar Rally preliminary stage

Riyadh: Qatari driver Nasser Saleh Al Attiyah won third place in the preliminary stage of the Dakar Desert Rally for the car category, which opened on...

Riyadh: Qatari driver Nasser Saleh Al Attiyah won third place in the preliminary stage of the Dakar Desert Rally for the car category, which opened on Friday in Saudi Arabia, and continues until January 17.

Al Attiyah came in third place on a Dacia Sandrider with a time of (15:48) minutes, (20) seconds behind South African Henk Lategan who came in first place on a Toyota Hilux, and (19) seconds behind Swede Mattias Ekstrom who came in second place on a Ford M Sport.

The times of the preliminary stage are not officially approved, but the top ten finishers will be able to choose the starting positions in the first stage of the Dakar Rally, which will start on Saturday over a distance of (499) km.

In the motorcycle category of the Dakar Rally, Australian Daniel Sanders came in first place on a KTM, achieving a time of (16:51) minutes, (12) seconds behind Botswanan Ross Branch on a Hero, and Spaniard Edgar Canet /KTM/, who came in second and third. (778) participants from (72) countries in various categories are participating in the rally, which extends over (12) stages.