After a storming start of the season, winning the 2011 Dakar rally and a couple of regional rallies Nasser Al-Attiyah continues his amazing beginning of the season in SWRC. He has begun his 2011 Super 2000 World Rally Championship campaign in perfect fashion with a controlled win on Rally Guanajuato Mexico.
The Qatar driver, driving a Barwa World Rally Team Ford Fiesta S2000, led from the opening stage in North America and controlled with very smart manners the proceedings to reach the end of day 3 on top with some class. Nasser didn’t only win his class, he also topped other drivers driving the new WRC cars in the rally and finished seventh in the overall standing.
Nasser told WRC.com:
“Fantastic!” “This has been a very hard weekend, but I am so happy to win this race. This is a good start to the championship for me. I’m so happy! I hope we keep on winning like this.”
Second-placed driver Martin Prokop started the day sandwiched between Al-Attiyah and Juho Hanninen in third. Although he was in touching distance of the leading Ford, Prokop admitted his primary concern was pursuing Hanninen.
That anguish was fully vindicated when Hanninen stormed the day’s opener taking 7.7 seconds out of the Czech Ford driver.
Prokop admitted his run through Guanajuatito had been something of a mixed bag. “In some places I was too slow and in others I was too fast,” said Prokop at the end of the stage. “I’m not happy. Forget Nasser, this is about staying ahead of Hanninen.”
Hanninen’s determined run came to nothing, however, when he rolled in the next stage, leaving the way clear for Prokop to take second.
At the finish Prokop was almost as pleased as the winner, saying: “It’s very important to beat the Skoda. Friday was not so good for me, we lost a lot with the bad set-up, but Saturday and Sunday have been perfect.”
Hanninen was a subdued third in his battered Fabia: “The roll was quite soft and we only lost 15 seconds with this,” he said. “But then we had a puncture at the left rear, and we lost quite a bit with this. It has been a difficult rally. We have some good points, but third places will not be enough. We need to win.”
Ott Tanak and Karl Kruda both restarted for the final day. Tanak’s MM Motorsport mechanics had been hard at work through Saturday, preparing the former Pirelli Star Driver’s Ford ahead of the final day. Tanak had crashed off the road on yesterday’s opener, dropping the car down a steep ravine.
“The team has done a very good job,” said Tanak. “The mechanics had to work really hard. I went off on the outside of a tight left-hand corner. I couldn’t get the car back, it dropped off the road and that was it.”
Tanak and Kruda (Skoda) picked up points on the final day, finishing fourth and fifth respectively.
Everywhere and Always on top
The volume of Nasser’s accomplishments has been huge that due to his continuous success few people remember that he is participating in in over 4 championships very year, and he is running a motorsport event every weekend. And although Nasser has a lot of experience now in rallying he does a very difficult job to shift from one type of motorsport to another every other weekend. To top everything Nasser is always on top winning all the events he is participating in.
Final SWRC results from Mexico Rally:
| Pos | No | Driver | Group Class |
Stage Time |
Total Time |
Diff Prev |
Diff 1st |
||
| 1 | 23 | N. AL-ATTIYAH | S | A2 | 4:06:38.5 | 4:06:38.5 | 0.0 | 0.0 | |
| 2 | 21 | M. PROKOP | S | A2 | 4:06:52.0 | 4:06:52.0 | +13.5 | +13.5 | |
| 3 | 25 | J. HÄNNINEN | S | A2 | 4:08:05.7 | 4:08:05.7 | +1:13.7 | +1:27.2 | |
| 4 | 22 | O. TANAK | S | A2 | 4:46:59.8 | 4:46:59.8 | +38:54.1 | +40:21.3 | |
| 5 | 26 | K. KRUUDA | S | A2 | 5:06:17.4 | 5:06:17.4 | +19:17.6 | +59:38.9 |
2011 FIA SWRC Drivers’ Standings:
| Pos | Driver | Total | |||||||||
| 1. | N. AL-ATTIYAH | 25 | 25 | ||||||||
| 2. | M. PROKOP | 18 | 18 | ||||||||
| 3. | J. HANNINEN | 15 | 15 | ||||||||
| 4. | O. TANAK | 12 | 12 | ||||||||
| 5. | K. KRUUDA | 10 | 10 | ||||||||
