Al-Attiyah sends letter to FIA president over Dakar frustrations

Dacia Sandriders driver Nasser Al-Attiyah has revealed he has sent a letter to FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem over his grievances from this year’s Dakar Rally.

The five-time event winner was left aggrieved by a 10-minute penalty when finishing fastest on Stage 5, a lost spare wheel taking away his 9m59s advantage at the end of the test to leave him one second adrift of the stage win in second.

Al-Attiyah has also been outspoken against the decision from the FIA to obstruct Carlos Sainz and Sebastien Loeb from continuing the event after their rollover crashes in the opening four stages – damage to the roll cages of the Ford and Dacia machines leaving them unable to continue as instructed by the regulations.

With frustration building, the Qatari driver revealed his intention to write a letter to Ben Sulayem and asked by media including Autosport for an update on the progress of the note, Al-Attiyah explained: “Yes, we sent the letter, and we were saying that we had to defend our position, our ten minutes. This is a mistake, to receive ten minutes, but we are working for this situation to change – not to change, we need to put the right people [there], I think.

“I don’t enjoy it. No, I don’t enjoy Dakar, I’m do day by day, but every time something strange [happens], I’m not enjoying at all”.

On whether there was anything missing to help his enjoyment, Al-Attiyah replied: “No, we don’t miss anything, but when you come to the race, you need to enjoy. You don’t need to have politics in the middle or something that’s not fair, when you put a rule – finish. You don’t need to change something every day. We are not in school.”

Al-Attiyah finished just under 12 minutes down on Stage 7 winner Lucas Moraes on a day where 20km of the route was neutralised to solve a roadbook error – the event director flying out in a helicopter mid-stage to assist the competitors.

The result leaves him 21m57s down on Henk Lategan in the overall classification and asked if he can still add a sixth win to his name, Al-Attiyah conceded: “I do not know.

“But maybe, in the end, I can win. So far I have not won on a stage, I go day by day, we’ll see.

“Twenty minutes is nothing, we still have five days, we try to do our best day by day, I will do my best to climb to win.”