Rallying-Champion Al-Attiyah shooting for his sixth Dakar title

Nasser Al-Attiyah hopes to be shooting for a medal at his seventh Olympics later in the year but the Qatari's immediate sights are set on winning the Dakar Rally for the sixth time and third in a row.

The 53-year-old rally driver, a skeet (clay pigeon) bronze medallist at the 2012 Games, has yet to qualify for Paris but sets out on Friday as a favourite at the wheel in the Saudi desert.

Al-Attiyah and co-driver Mathieu Baumel have switched from Toyota to Prodrive in the top car category and can become the first to win the Dakar with four different constructors.

The Qatari's 'Nasser Racing' Hunter T1+ will be the same as that driven by France's nine times world rally champion Sebastien Loeb for the Bahrain Raid Xtreme team.

Loeb, who has finished runner-up for the past two years, will be both team mate and main rival.

"Over the years I have won with three different manufacturers in Rally Raid, but to win with a fourth car is a big target for us," said Al-Attiyah, who won in 2011 with Volkswagen, 2015 with Mini and in 2019, 2022 and 2023 with Toyota and will race for Renault-owned Dacia next year.

Only two others have won three car Dakars in a row - Finland's Ari Vatanen in 1989-1991 and Frenchman Pierre Lartigue from 1994-96.

"We have a good feeling, we won the first race we competed with the Hunter in Dubai (in November)," said Al-Attiyah last month.

"We just need to learn a little bit and prepare ourselves mentally with the new teams. I think we can do it."

Young Californian Seth Quintero has joined the five car Toyota factory team in the top T1+ category alongside South Africa's 2009 winner Giniel de Villiers and Saudi Arabia's Yazeed al Rajhi.

Three times Dakar winner Carlos Sainz, the 61-year-old father of the Ferrari