Qatar’s Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah and French navigator Matthieu Baumel comfortably won the opening 258.14km selective section of the Hail Cross-Country Rally on Wednesday morning.
The Toyota Gazoo Racing pair set 3hr 20min 01sec in their Toyota Hilux to finish 6min 05sec ahead of stage runner-up Denis Krotov. The result further boosted Al-Attiyah’s already strong chances of winning the FIA World Cup, leaving him 22min 16sec ahead of Toyota team-mate and title rival Lucio Alvarez at the Hail night halt.
We started first of the T1 cars, but the T1 2022 specification cars started before us. We passed all three of them during the day and we opened the road half the way. It was not an easy stage. The first part was more navigation and off-track and the second part was faster. It was a nice day and we had a good result. We need to win two stages to get the World Cup. That is the goal for this rally.
Matthieu Baumel
The X-raid Mini Buggies of Jakub Przygonski and Sebastien Halpern were third and fifth, either side of Vladimir Vasilyev’s BMW X3 in fourth.
It was quite a nice stage with a lot of camel grass and it was quite soft. We made a navigation mistake and got lost but we enjoyed it. It was nice.
Jakub Przygonski
Laia Sanz adapted well in a Mini John Cooper Works Rally and was sixth, with Alvarez seventh and Czech Miroslav Zapletal ninth in a Ford F-150. Local hero Yazeed Al-Rajhi was heading for second-fastest time until a gearbox problem cost him 1hr 48sec to Al-Attiyah.
Three 2022-spec cars were allowed to run as Dakar preparation. Martin Prokop had a useful test in the new Ford Raptor Cross-Country, and Ronan Chabot and Juan Cruz Yacopini got to grips with the latest Overdrive Toyota Hilux T1+.
T3 and T4
Saleh Al-Saif topped FIA T3 in his Can-Am, beating Germany’s Annett Fischer by 4min 51sec. Saudi pair Mashael Al-Obaidan and Esraa Aldkheil were third and fifth, with Uzbekistan’s Anvar Ergashev fourth and Dania Akeel sixth.
Poland’s Michal Goczal moved up to eighth overall and won the T4 stage in his Can-Am, 9min 43sec ahead of Australia’s Molly Taylor. Brother Marek Goczal was third, with Ukraine’s Ievgen Kovalevych and Dubai-based Briton Thomas Bell completing the top five.
Bikes, quads, national and trucks
Anass Al-Reheyani set the unofficial fastest motorcycle time to lead Abdulhalim Al-Mogheera by 61 seconds, with Othman Al-Ghfeli unofficially third.
Multiple Hail winner Abdulmajeed Al-Khulaifi led the quads on his Yamaha from FIM Bajas World Cup champion Haitham Al-Tuwaijri and Hani Al-Noumesi.
Al-Mashna Al-Shammeri was the unofficial National Rally leader in his Nissan Patrol, with Czech Josef Machacek unofficially second in his Buggyra Can-Am DV21 and Saeed Al-Mouri third in a Can-Am.
Frenchman Teo Calvet, with Czechs Josef Kalina and Tomas Sikola, set the fastest Truck time in their Tatra.
Thursday
Competitors face a second selective section of 314km in the deserts near Hail. It starts after a 99km road liaison, has passage controls at 105km and 194km, and is followed by a 96km road section back to the bivouac.