Attiyah withdraws from Dakar Rally

Qatar’s Nasser al-Attiyah, who won last year’s Dakar Rally in a Volkswagen car, withdrew from the current edition of the race yesterday, due to technical problems in his Hummer. During the ninth stage of the Dakar Rally, from Antofagasta to Iquique in northern Chile, al-Attiyah had to stop three times to fix his alternator drive belt. In the 174th kilometre he decided to give up. The Qatari was sixth in the overall standings, 45:25 behind race leader Stephane Peterhansel. He had managed to win two stages, but mechanical trouble in his Hummer had continually hampered his progress.