Abu Dhabi, March 8 (BNA) The third stage of the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge saw Sebastien Loeb and Fabien Lorken take second place, and four more points for the Bahrain Raid Xtreme’s campaign towards the World Rally Championship (WRRC).
Once again, the sustainable-fueled Prodrive Hunter ran smoothly in the sweltering heat of the Al Dhafra desert, while there were problems for several of the cars that were currently ahead of the pair in the WRRC overall standings, enabling Loeb to move up the leaderboard.
Championship leader Nasser Al-Attiyah won the stage but remained 18 hours behind and far behind on the leaderboard after retiring in the first stage.
“Today was a good day for us and we did a clean job. The car was good and the speed is good despite the heat and the sand is very fine. We don’t really push because we’re trying to protect our championship position because that’s our goal,” Loeb said.
BRX Team Principal Jos Petelli said: “It was another good day for us. With Hunter continuing to do well in hot conditions. Seb’s pace means he continues to climb the leaderboard in WRRC, and that’s the most important thing for us because our goal is to get out of the Here with the championship lead by three rounds.”
In the final standings at the end of the event, T1 cars will score based on their overall position, not their position within the T1 class. Having lost time in the first stage, this means Loeb is looking to overtake WRRC competitors in all categories, not just T1, in order to maximize his length points.