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Rain and swelling rivers pose challenge for Al Qassimi

Uyuni - Despite facing several problems on the stage, the Abu Dhabi Racing driver did well to stay inside the top 10

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Abu Dhabi Racing and Peugeot Middle East official driver Sheikh Khalid bin Faisal Al Qassimi, behind the wheel of a 3008 DKR Maxi, with co-driver Xavier Panseri, continued to stay inside the top 10 on completion of Stage 7, the La Paz-Uyuni stage comprising of 302km of liaison and 425km of Special Stage.
And despite facing several problems on the stage, the Abu Dhabi Racing driver did well to stay inside the top 10 by classifying overall in 8th place at the end of the day.
Sheikh Khalid said: "At waypoint one, about 10km into the stage, there was a river and the water level kept rising."
I saw a helicopter above me. My car was in deep waters and the strong currents were pulling my car away. We could not move the car and were stuck in the river for about 15 minutes.
"The water levels had reached up to my doors, this was coupled with poor visibility.
"At the other end of the swelling river was a farmer in his tractor. He reversed his vehicle to a point from which he could throw a rope for us and pull us out of the river.
"From there on I resorted to a balanced pace as it was a bit difficult to navigate, though not much difficult.
"I tried to avoid the scores of puddles on the stage. It was quite difficult but we adopted a balanced pace after that. That is the nature of racing here, but we are still in the game.