AUTO
200 Nasser Al Attiyah / Mathieu Baumel (QAT / AND)
“It was not easy out there. There was a lot of wind and there was really no mark for the track. 250kms was a tough stage of soft sand, but in the end, we did a really good job as it is nice to win again and take five points as the breakdown on Day One cost us a lot.
“We need to win the five points. We need to be clever because we don’t need to push like crazy. But okay, yesterday we win and today we win and this is really good pace and we try tomorrow and day after tomorrow to do the same.
“Day One was difficult for me as after just five kms we broke down and the car was not okay. This is a race, and yeah, we are here now and we will try to finish tomorrow and day after tomorrow.
“We will try to make up for Day One as it was a bad day and we lose the rally completely. I am quite happy to win yesterday and today and finish with maximum points every day. Thanks to all the fans for all the support and I promise them that we are here to do our best.”
208 Stephane Peterhansel / Edouard Boulanger (FRA / FRA)
“Today was very good and we had a good drive over the dunes, overtaking Yazeed [Al Rajhi] this morning. We pushed more this afternoon as the car was good and not over-heating. We are learning a lot about the car. For the last two stages, we will push very hard as we are looking for a victory.”
202 Sebastien Loeb / Fabian Lurquin (FRA / BEL)
“Today was pretty good for us. The pace was okay despite the heat and the sand being very soft. We are not really pushing as we are trying to protect our position. We are pleased with the car as we had a good clean run today.”
203 Yazeed Al Rajhi / Dirk Von Zitzewitz (SAU / DEU)
Jordi Durante, Team Manager/Co-ordinator, Toyota Overdrive
“It has been a really tough day today. We had a break-down some 45km from the end. We could not repair it, so we decided to give up and tow the car back here and get it ready in time for the start of Stage 4 tomorrow.
“We don’t exactly know what the issue with the car is. We did the first inspection on the terrain, and after that we decided to tow the car here. We have not yet started the car till now. Our engineers will check it now and put it together for tomorrow’s fourth stage.
“Yazeed was second overall and we all know how cruel motorsport can be. Now, suddenly he is the last. Any way, we are learning and we keep improving the car with the hope that it will be better prepared for the next race.”
209 Martin Prokop / Viktor Chytka (CZE / CZE)
“The stage was a bit easier than the previous ones and I was able to keep out of trouble. This stage was more difficult today than last November as the heat is more and the sand is very soft. This made it tougher than Dakar.”
303 Seth Quintero / Dennis Zenz (USA / DEU)
“It was such a windy one today and all the time we could not see anything because of the sand. It was really crazy out there. Our time was good, better than the past two days. There were some big dunes with big drop-offs. This was challenging, but good.”