JEDDAH, SAUDI ARABIA – Yazeed Al-Rajhi and Dania Akeel fought a fascinating duel on Friday’s opening 191km stage of Jeddah Rally Toyota through the scenic desert north of the city.
Just 6min 35sec separated the Overdrive Racing pair after a stage partly run in rain and storms, and Al-Rajhi and German navigator Timo Gottschalk will open the road for Saturday’s season finale. Akeel and Stéphane Duplé must finish ahead of their rivals to have any chance of the Saudi Toyota Rally Championship.
It was a good day for us. Timo and I did it well. Nothing special but winning the stage was the most important. Let’s hope it all continues and I can win the championship for the fourth time to end the season.
Yazeed Al-Rajhi
A lot of diverse terrain as usual in Jeddah. We opened the road from about 70km. I enjoyed it a lot. The plan is to at least stay in this position and maybe progress.
Dania Akeel
Bikes and quads
Abdulhalim Al-Mogheera and Haitham Al-Tuwaijri stayed top of the motorcycle and quad categories, while Mishaal Al-Ghuneim won the bike stage on his Husqvarna.
I was the 10th competitor on the start and the leader of the bikes and I managed to complete the first part on my own. I was a bit nervous to be alone. At one point I was lost but Ahmed Al-Jaber and Mohammed Al-Balooshi joined me and we completed the stage together.
Abdulhalim Al-Mogheera
We got lucky with the rain today but we got very muddy. The start of the stage wasn’t great for me but I managed to make up a lot of ground in the later part and won the stage. My accident in Qatar prevented me from competing for the Baja World Cup in quads on the last two events.
Haitham Al-Tuwaijri
If you see the Prologue results, you know I am out of contention for this rally. I really messed up the Prologue. I had 40 minutes of penalties. I had a problem with the GPS and completely lost my way. Anyway, this is the last rally of the season and I wanted to finish well before Dakar. Today, was a really good day and I won the stage. Riding in the rain was pleasant. I loved it.
Mishaal Al-Ghuneim
Several competitors were penalised after Thursday’s Prologue for missing key waypoints. Alex McInnes received two minutes and Mohammed Al-Balooshi 10 minutes, dropping him down the order; Martin Chalmers and Sarah Khuraibet got four minutes each, and in the cars Miroslav Zapletal, Yasir Seaidan and Saleh Al-Saif were also penalised.
The car field
Ibrahim Al-Muhanna opened the road for the cars, with Akeel and Al-Rajhi choosing fifth and 10th among the 31 starters. Annett Quandt and Maria Gameiro gave X-raid’s new Fenic – an evolution of the team’s Yamaha 1000 R Turbo with a new front hood and revised drivetrain, suspension and front axle geometry – its competition debut after hundreds of kilometres of testing in Morocco and Dubai.
Yasir Seaidan was third in his Challenger-leading Taurus T3 Max, with Waleed Al-Dhakeel (MC-5) fourth and Quandt and Swedish co-driver Annie Seel fifth and third in Challenger, ahead of Saleh Al-Saif.
I did face some car issues but we didn’t stop and we didn’t lose a lot of time. Tomorrow, I will continue with the same approach of today. I won’t be able to push to the maximum but I will try and preserve the car.
Waleed Al-Dhakeel
Eighth-placed Abdullah Al-Shegawi (Can-Am) leads SSV, while Mohammed Al-Asiri still heads the Stock class in his Nissan Patrol. Maha Al-Hameli runs just outside the top 10 in her Can-Am.
It was a good stage but very difficult in terms of navigation. We almost opened the stage but there was a problem before the start with the in-helmet radio and I had no communication with my co-driver. From the start to the end, we communicated with sign language. It wasn’t easy at all. I was under a lot of pressure. I couldn’t tell where the speed zones were and the danger zones and when to go left or right. We had a good position until the car switched off and wouldn’t start for 10 minutes at the refuelling.
Maha Al-Hameli
Al-Balooshi struggles
The overnight penalties ended an out-of-sorts Al-Balooshi’s hopes of a clean sweep of bike wins this season. Al-Ghuneim beat him by 17 seconds for the stage, with leader Al-Mogheera third. McInnes lost time but holds second overall from Philip Horlemann and Ehab Al-Hakeem, while Khuraibet rode slowly to the finish after navigation equipment problems.
Not so good. I cannot focus. I am making so many mistakes. I have been doubting myself now. The rain didn’t affect me. It is just that I am not there with my head. I cannot pinpoint.
Mohammed Al-Balooshi
Today was really fun, probably the most fun stage I have done in my life. It was a mix of sand, rocky tracks, sliding gravel roads and the navigation was good. I think my navigation is good enough to win.
Alex McInnes
In quads, Al-Tuwaijri was again fastest on his Yamaha Raptor 700 and leads Abdulaziz Al-Shayban by 2min 01sec, with Abdulaziz Al-Atawi and Hani Al-Noumesi third and fourth. Saturday’s final stage covers about 103km between Al-Kamil and Khulais, north of Jeddah.
Positions after day one – cars (top 5)
- Yazeed Al-Rajhi / Timo Gottschalk (Toyota Hilux)
- Dania Akeel / Stéphane Duplé (Toyota Hilux)
- Yasir Seaidan / Michael Metge (Taurus T3 Max) – 2hr 05min 00sec
- Waleed Al-Dhakeel / Egor Alexandrovich (MC-5) – 2hr 11min 13sec
- Annett Quandt / Annie Seel (X-Raid Fenic) – 2hr 14min 51sec