Qatar’s Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah and co-driver Mathieu Baumel surrendered the lead of the Qatar International Baja to Polish rivals Krzysztof Holowczyc and Lukasz Kurzeja on Friday morning’s longer opening stage, but hit back with the fastest time on the next section to end the day 2min 33.8sec clear.
Driving a borrowed Toyota Hilux, the defending champions go into the final day with a narrow advantage over their team-mates Denis Krotov and Konstantin Zhiltsov, who are second in their Overdrive Racing Toyota Hilux despite two flat tyres.
The first stage was not easy because the road book was not really clear but we make two mistakes that cost 10 minutes. On the next two sections we pushed and are quite happy.
Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah
Today was good. No problems with navigation. My co-driver did a good job. Two punctures cost us time.
Denis Krotov
Holowczyc was reported to have stopped on the day’s second stage with cooling problems on his Mini JCW Rally Plus. That allowed China’s Guoyu Zhang and Spanish co-driver Oriol Mena to move up to third in their Baic ORC BJ40, in spite of a flat tyre of their own.
Cars faced three competitive sections of 117.29km, 46.05km and 70.53km, with the motorcycles and quads covering a similar distance but tackling the two shorter sections first.
Nasser Al-Kuwari shines in T3
Nasser Al-Kuwari is best known as a respected international co-driver, but the Qatari has impressed behind the wheel this weekend. He has opened a 4min 02.1sec lead in the FIA T3 category for lightweight prototypes over his regular driver Meshari Al-Thefiri, who hit navigation problems. With French co-driver François Cazalet, the QMMF Rally Team Can-Am driver is a remarkable fourth overall.
I am very happy with the result today. You have two options. Is the route okay or not and we followed the right route. We both did a great job. I was careful with the rocks and I kept my speed. My co-driver is one of the best and I trust him and we are happy to lead the T3.
Nasser Al-Kuwari
Al-Thefiri and Oriol Vidal are sixth overall and second in T3 in their new MCE-5 T3M. Abdulaziz Al-Kuwari and co-driver Alexei Kuzmich are seventh overall and third in the class in the second QMMF Rally Team Can-Am.
I am very happy with my first day ever in this kind of rally. It was good experience. The first time in my life in cross-country. A lot of things to see in the stage, cars passing you, different terrain, sometimes sandy, sometimes gravel. My co-driver did a fantastic job.
Abdulaziz Al-Kuwari
We were lost and we saw three ways and we tested them all and then we catch the right way after six minutes. I push more. My first time here and a new car for me. I see this car last year in Dubai and we decided to drive the T3M this time.
Meshari Al-Thefiri
Brazil’s Cristiano de Sousa Batista and Portuguese co-driver Fausto Mota still lead the FIA T4 section in their South Racing Can-Am and are 10th overall. Frenchman Jeremie Warnia is second in the class and 11th overall, with young Pau Navarro third in his FN Speed Team Can-Am. Italy’s Pietro Cinotto was handed time penalties after breaking the power steering on the Prologue and is out of the fight for the podium.
Overdrive Racing’s Juan Cruz Yacopini is fifth in his Toyota Hilux, while Saudi Arabia’s Khalid Al-Feraihi is eighth overall and on course for valuable FIA Middle East Baja Cup points. He stopped to help at the scene of an accident involving Khalid Al-Muhannadi and Pedro Santos, and the time he lost was given back to the Nissan driver after the stage.
Dabrowski in control in the motorcycles
Konrad Dabrowski stretched his motorcycle lead to 18min 57.6sec with another commanding stage win on his KTM. The gifted young Polish Junior, who is following in the footsteps of his father Marek, won the day’s stage by 14min 43.2sec from Great Britain’s Robert Wallace, who stays second overall.
I started ninth after winning the Prologue and that was a good starting position for today. My plan was to catch the leaders and to gain as much time as possible and I was actually able to do it before the refuel. By then I knew that the result would be very good. After the second half I opened all the way and it was a really nice day.
Konrad Dabrowski
Australian Martin Chalmers was third on the day and holds the same position overall. Canada’s Jonathan Finn is fourth, and fellow Australian Andrew Houlihan rode strongly to fifth and the lead of the Veterans category.
Emirati Abdullah Al-Lanjawi and Saudi Arabia’s Mishal Al-Ghuneim are sixth and seventh, while eighth-placed Mirjam Pol continues to head the Women’s category. Ireland’s Oran O’Kelly stopped to help South Africa’s Michael Anderson after he crashed his KTM on the stage.
Experienced Saudi rider Haitham Al-Tuwaijri topped the quads in the unofficial results, ahead of overnight leader Abdulaziz Al-Ahli of the UAE.
Saturday
Cars face a single 224.96km stage, divided into sections of 33.73km, 28.51km, 43.23km and 113.20km by three non-competitive transfer zones. The first car is due on stage at 10.40hrs, with the first motorcycle starting the same route at 08.45hrs.