Toyota

“Ready to defend our title”

The end of the year was busy for title holder Nasser Al Attiyah. A celebrity at home in Qatar, the four-time winner of the Dakar, was particularly solicited for the football World Cup. At the start of the competition, the friendly 50-year-old was smiling as he evoked his country's evident victory. He then devoted himself 100% to his main activity, his primary objective: a fifth crown.  Nasser Al Attiyah remains a phenomenon. A driver who wins almost every race he participates in, or nearly. Since his first Dakar in anonymity behind the wheel of a Mitsubishi Pajero that he took to tenth place in Senegal in 2004, Nasser has multiplied his successes: four victories with three different cars, including the first in 2011, and 46 stage victories. After having driven for all the major teams in his discipline (BMW, Volkswagen, Hummer and Mini), he has established himself for the past six years within the Toyota Gazoo team, offering the brand its first title in 2019. He had to wait three years before winning in his region after two runner-up finishes behind Carlos Sainz and Stéphane Peterhansel.  The Qatari comes to the start of the 45th edition of the Dakar with the status of favourite after winning the FIA World Rally Championship title. He also claimed his umpteenth Middle East Rally Champion (MERC) title, winning four of the five rounds. All this in the company of his faithful co-driver Mathieu Baumel, his partner, his friend... like a brother.

MB: “It was a great victory, mainly for Nasser, of course, because being from Qatar and winning in the Middle East means a lot. We worked hard for this with the entire team to achieve such a result.  Nasser is exactly as you see him on TV. He is very generous, very kind, always friendly and smiling. And luckily for me, he is the same in the car during the rally, no matter what happens. We always keep calm and avoid stress, which helps us work better, especially on my side with navigation. I am so fortunate. He is like my brother now. I spend more time with him during the year than with my family. This relationship, the way we work together, and this mutual trust impact our results. We are together during the rallies but also away from them.”