Qatar’s Nasser Saleh Al Attiyah and French navigator Matthieu Baumel in their Toyota Hilux during the opening selective section of the Hail Cross-Country Rally, yesterday.
Hail: 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, yesterday.
The Toyota Gazoo Racing duo steered their Toyota Hilux to a time of 3hr 20min 01sec and duly finished 6min 05sec in front of stage runner-up Denis Krotov. Al Attiyah’s stage performance boosted his already overwhelming odds of clinching the FIA World Cup title and the Qatar found himself 22min 16sec ahead of Toyota team-mate and title rival Lucio Alvarez heading into the night halt in Hail.
Al Attiyah’s co-driver Baumel said: “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.”
TheX-raid Mini BuggiesofJakub Przygonski and Sebastien Halpern were third and fifth, sandwiching Vladimir Vasilyev’s BMW X3 in fourth.
Laia Sanz adapted well to her challenge for honours in a Mini John Cooper Works Rally and was classified in sixth, with Alvarez in seventh overall and Czech driver Miroslav Zapletal holding ninth in a Ford F-150. Local hero Yazeed Al Rajhi was on course for the second fastest time until a gearbox issue intervened and cost the Saudi 1hr 48sec to the stage-winning Al Attiyah.
Three 2022 specification machines were permitted to tackle the event in preparation for the Dakar Rally. Martin Prokop enjoyed a useful test session in the new Ford Raptor Cross-Country and both Ronan Chabot and Juan Cruz Yacopini got to grips with the latest Overdrive Toyota Hilux T1+.
Today, competitors embark upon a second selective section of 314km through the deserts near Hail. The stage starts after a road liaison of 99km and features passage controls at 105km and 194km. A road section of 96km takes teams back to the bivouac.
