Desert Wings driver quotes at Dakar Rally finish 20.01.2018: Quotes Carlos Sainz: “I’m extremely happy with the way things have gone at this Dakar. There are a lot of people behind this victory so I say a big thank you to all the members of Team Peugeot Total and to Red Bull and all our

Quotes




Carlos Sainz: “I’m extremely happy with the way things have gone at this Dakar. There are a lot of people behind this victory so I say a big thank you to all the members of Team Peugeot Total and to Red Bull and all our other sponsors.  Also thanks to my co-driver Lucas and to all my family. When you have such a big lead it’s easy to lose concentration or start to go a little bit too slow. Keeping this under control was the big job during this second week. This is the hardest Dakar I’ve ever done, and that includes the races I did in Africa.”



Nasser Al-Attiyah: “Considering all the problems we had in the first week of this rally I think to finish in second place is a good result for us. I’m thankful for all the support from Toyota Gazoo Racing SA. Everybody was working so hard and I’m glad I could give the team this result as a way to say thank you. In the first week when we had so many problems I thought our chance to finish on the podium had gone. But we did a good job fighting back and second place is not bad.”



Giniel De Villiers: “When you come to this race you want to finish on the podium so we’re happy to be up there again. I think this is the toughest Dakar we’ve had in South America for sure. This has been a great way to mark the 40th anniversary of the Dakar. The race has been tough and so unpredictable. Exciting things have been happening on every stage and the leaderboard has changed so much. For Toyota to be two and three on the podium is fantastic and we say well done to Carlos who deserves his win.”



Stéphane Peterhansel: “It was a crazy Dakar. Lots of top riders were having crashes and suffering problems. We did two big mistakes ourselves and lost a lot of time. Our first problem was just before Uyuni and the second one came yesterday. If we add those two incidents up we lost about three hours. That’s too much time to lose if you want to win the Dakar.”



Cyril Despres: “This was a nice edition, starting from Peru. The Dakar needs desert, it needs dunes and open space and we found all this in Peru. We’ve been enjoying this Peugeot team spirit for four years now and it was in evidence again this time. Unfortunately we lost our chance to win in the first week but after that we did what we could to make sure one of our team-mates would win.”



Kuba Przygonski: “We’re so happy to be here at the finish. For me it was the toughest Dakar I have ever experienced. This is my 9th Dakar so I already knew something about this race, but this year it was something different. We had a good time inside the car with my co-driver Tom. We had no big issues with the car and we were able to keep a good rhythm throughout. I think we’re the youngest guys in the Top 10 so maybe we can keep improving in the future.”



Matthias Walker: “This was a crazy Dakar with really, really tough navigation this year. Then we had the situation with so many riders so close together at the top of leaderboard. I’ve never seen anything like that. I stayed focused on doing nothing stupid and tried my best to limit any mistakes. I didn’t go for big gains and I never really suffered any big losses and this ended up working out for me. In the final days I just had to block out the fact that I was getting closer and closer to winning the biggest event in our sport.”



Toby Price: “From where I was 12 weeks ago with my injury it’s quite incredible to be here at the finish line and standing on the podium. It’s not the step I would pick, but it’s not too bad all things considered. This Red Bull KTM Factory Team is one big family and it feel great to be here at the finish line celebrating once again.”



Antoine Méo: “It’s a big feeling of satisfaction to ride over the finish line. I’m still a little disappointed with the mistake I made with the navigation earlier this week. We were pushing so hard and that led to the mistake. But never mind, to be here now is great and to share the victory of my team-mate feels excellent.”



Laia Sanz: “I’m really happy to have finished this Dakar because it was really tough. Especially to finish in my position feels good to be so close to the Top 10. This feels like a good reward for all the hard work I do during the year. My team was great so thanks to them because my bike was fantastic. I’ve started eight Dakars now and I’ve finished them all so that’s not a bad record to have.”



Daniel Nosiglia: “I’m feeling very satisfied right now. To be here at the finish line of my second Dakar with my objectives fulfilled feels great. I’m very happy right now. The plan now is to rest a little bit after these intense couple of weeks. Then I’ll start to focus on the other races we have coming up this year.”



Ivan Cervantes: “What a feeling to be here at the finish line. I was feeling very sick at the beginning of the race and I wasn’t sure how far I would be able to go. Along the way I had a few mechanical problems, this was not a straightforward Dakar for me at all. To be here now makes me feel very proud and happy for the great team that has supported me all the way.”



Mohammed Balooshi: “I drove a slow last stage because it was all about getting to this finish line. The whole thing is still too big to understand. I was under so much pressure, riding with a broken bone and in pain every single day. It’s done now and it feels so good to have reached my goal of reaching the finish. The effort it takes just to finish this race is just incredible.”



CS Santosh: “Boy was this one tough Dakar. Every single stage was a big, big battle just to get to the line. There were plenty of ups and downs along the way. There were some incredible highs and also some low moments along the way. It was everything you envision a Dakar will have.”




Eduard Nikolaev: “This Dakar was very hard from beginning to end. Not only was the route extremely tough but we also so had so much competition between the trucks in our category. I’m thankful to my crew and to the team that we could all work together to deliver this win. I’m happy that we can give another winning result to our fans. I can never remember a situation in any category at the Dakar when there was just one second between the two first drivers with just two stages to go. I felt a lot of responsibility at this time to get the job done and I’m glad I was able to perform well.”



Ignacio Casale: “This was such a tough race and it’s unbelievable that things could go so good for me from the first stage onwards. You need to keep your cool when you’re leading the race because it brings a different type of pressure. I had this for two weeks so I needed to use my head a lot. Now I’m over the finish line and have my second Dakar win it feels great. I’ve been looking for this second win for a lot of years now.”






Christina Gaither