Yazeed Al-Rajhi has moved into contention for the 2021 FIA World Cup for Cross-Country Bajas title after his victory in Dubai last weekend.
The Saudi driver dominated the two-day event in his Overdrive Toyota Hilux and took bonus points for two stage wins, setting up an early-season duel with defending champion Vladimir Vasilyev at the top of the standings.
Al-Rajhi has now returned to Saudi Arabia to prepare to defend his 2019 Saudi Toyota Desert Rally Championship title. The opening round runs alongside the Sharqiyah International Baja Toyota, round three of the FIA series, next weekend (March 4-6).
The Covid-19 crisis meant the Saudi Desert series did not run in 2020, but the Kingdom has already hosted two Hail Bajas and the Dakar Rally this winter. The Saudi Automobile and Motorcycle Federation (SAMF) is finalising the Sharqiyah event, which runs through the Eastern Province deserts from a base near Modon Lake Park.
The standings
Behind Vasilyev and Al-Rajhi, second places in Russia and Dubai for Andrey Novikov and Khalid Al-Qassimi put them third and fourth, with Saudi driver Yasir Seaidan and Boris Gadasin fifth and sixth.
Gadasin also leads Frenchman Pierre Lauchaume by one point in FIA T3, with Anastasiya Nifontova and Michel Fadel tied for third after their second places in the first two rounds.
FIA T4 promises to be one of the most hotly contested sections as the series moves to Saudi Arabia and Jordan in March before five European rounds in Spain, Hungary, Poland, Italy and Portugal from July to late October.
Frenchman Claude Fournier took maximum points at the Northern Forest RAF Baja, and fourth in Dubai gives the Can-Am Maverick X3 driver 45.5 points and the series lead. Dubai winner Pavel Lebedev is second on 27 points, Kuwait’s Meshari Al-Thefiri third on 18.5, with Spain’s Laia Sanz and Saudi Saleh Al-Saif fourth and fifth on 13 and 11.5 points respectively.
The Sharqiyah route
The Sharqiyah International Baja will be decided over a 10km super special on Thursday, March 4th and two desert selective sections of 220km and 202km on March 5th and 6th.
The route crosses dunes and winding sandy tracks, and one leg starts from the seaside in an area used by the former Sharqiyah Rally, once a round of the FIA Middle East Rally Championship.
The event is organised by a team working under H.R.H. Prince Khalid bin Sultan Al-Abdullah Al-Faisal, SAMF President and Chairman of the Organising Committee. Entries close on Wednesday.