June 26, 2015 – After showing their trademark speed over sand to record the quickest time at three consecutive FIA Cross-Country Rally World Cup races it’s now time for the Qatar Rally Team to pitch themselves against the dirt tracks of the Italian Baja. Nasser Al-Attiyah and co-driver Mathieu Baumel will need to show all their offroad experience and expertise if they are to continue this year’s winning streak at one of the most technically challenging and unpredictable races on the calendar.
Since winning the Dakar Rally at the start of the year the following six months have seen the Qatar Rally Team duo in imperious form with further victories collected at WRC2, Cross-Country Rally World Cup and Middle East Rally Championship events. Now Nasser and Mathieu arrive in the racing hotbed of northern Italy on mission to park their Red Bull flying Mini on the top step of the podium once again.
As well as a world-renowned field of entrants, including championship rival Vladimir Vasilyev (5th at the last Dakar), there is also the unforgiving terrain of the Italian Baja to give Nasser and Mathieu plenty to think about ahead of this Friday’s 12km prologue stage.
The distances increase on the weekend with two timed special stages scheduled on both Saturday and Sunday. Each morning delivers a 101km special stage with an additional 202km of timed racing in the afternoon. The high-speed action centres on gravel tracks lining the banks of the Meduna and Tagliamento rivers on the outskirts of Venice.
The difficulty of the Italian Baja is cranked up by restrictions placed on the support crew of the teams involved. Only two mechanics and one engineer are allowed to work on each car and their time is extremely limited due to the rapid fire nature of the stages.
Nasser and Mathieu gear up for the contest with a clear plan of attack that will need to be executed to perfection to allow the pit crew ample time to perform essential maintenance. The entire team know that a winning result in Italy will place them in pole position for further European legs of the championship taking place in Spain, Hungary and Poland in the coming months.