Qatar’s Adel Abdulla and French navigator Jean-Michel Polato were second in the T2 category for series-production cross-country vehicles after the first two special stages of the 25th Italian Baja on Saturday morning.
Round six of the FIA World Cup for Cross-Country Rallies, based at Pordenone in north-eastern Italy, is a crucial points opportunity for the Qatari as he tries to cut the 26-point gap to series leader Ahmed Al-Shegawi.
Super special
The action began with an 8.1km super special on Friday evening. Abdulla clocked 10min 49sec for third in T2, hampered by an electronic sensor problem that had affected the car on shakedown earlier in the day.
Poland’s Tomasz Piec and Michal Marczewski were fastest in their Toyota Land Cruiser, with Al-Shegawi and French co-driver Laurent Lichtleuchter second. Tomasz Baronowski and Grzegorz Konczak received heavy time penalties for failing to complete the stage in their Toyota LC155.
Valvadrom
Saturday features three runs through the 86.85km Valvadrom stage between San Lorenzo di Arzene and Valvasone, crossing demanding gravel river beds that usually carry late-spring meltwater from the nearby mountains.
Abdulla set the fastest time of 1hr 19min 56sec on the first run, beating Piec by 18 seconds to move up to second overall, 1min 25sec behind the leader heading into the second pass. More importantly, he was 14min 16sec ahead of rival Al-Shegawi, now holding a 12min 55sec advantage over the Saudi, with the sensor problem fixed by the team’s mechanics.
We had a problem with the sensor on the turbo on the shakedown. It was giving the wrong signal and the car was running in safe mode. We entered the super special and I did not push from the start. After 5km from the start, the car went into the safe mode again and we lost around 1min 40sec to the leader. The mechanics tried to fix the problem yesterday.
Adel Abdulla
We did a good job in the first stage today. Yesterday we were third and then we moved up to second place with the fastest time. The race is really tough. The stage is repeated three times and it will be very rough with the two stages tomorrow. It will be hard on the cars.
Adel Abdulla
Abdulla’s bid to win back the FIA T2 title is supported by the Qatar Motor and Motorcycle Federation (QMMF) and Ooredoo Qatar.
After two more stages on Saturday, the event concludes with two passes through an 87.41km stage between Valvasone and San Lorenzo di Arzene on Sunday, before the podium in Piazzale Venti Settembre in the centre of Pordenone.