Qatar’s Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah won the punishing 396.46km second selective section of the Sealine Cross-Country Rally on Tuesday. Al-Attiyah, hold the unofficial outright leads in the car category.
Al-Attiyah and French co-driver Matthieu Baumel led from start-to-finish in their Mini All4 Racing and managed to extend their overall lead to 24min 29sec over Saudi’s Yazeed Al-Rajhi and his German co-driver Timo Gottschalk in an Overdrive Toyota Hilux.
“It was a good day, no problems,” said the Qatari. “To be the first car and open the road is not easy, but the feeling with the car was incredible. Matthieu did a great job for the second day. I pushed hard and I knew this would be a test for him as well. But it was a good job. Maybe I soften the rear suspension tomorrow to make the wheels travel better over the rocky ground, but I am not worried about opening again. I am very happy.”
Yazeed Al-Rajhi was upbeat despite losing his way three times. “I started well and was driving well,” said the Saudi. “Then we lost our way. It is easy to do that in Qatar. There were three Minis going round and round until one of us found the track. I lost four or five minutes, but the goal was to be in front of Vladimir (Vasilyev) and I am doing that, so that’s okay.”
SS2 – as it happened
The 396.46km second selective section included four passage controls at the 29.75km, 130.03km, 178.67km and 244.93km points. Three quads, 15 motorcycles and 20 cars started the special. A fire had badly damaged Saudi driver Ahmed Al-Shegawi’s Chevrolet Buggy on Monday afternoon and he retired.
The special started to the far south-west of Doha and headed north through the desert along the western coast, before turning south, passing under the Salwa road, and then east across the south of the country to a finish 4.85km from the Sealine bivouac.
Al-Attiyah reached the stage finish 11min 15sec in front of his nearest rival in the car category to record a second stage win from Pole Martin Kaczmarski. Al-Rajhi lost time between PC2 and PC3 with navigational errors and finished the stage in third, but moved up to second overall.
Tomorrow (Wednesday), competitors will tackle the longest stage of the entire event – a torturous 411.76km loop stage through southern Qatar – with the first bike reaching the start at 05.45hrs.
2014 Sealine Cross-Country Rally – positions on SS2 (396.46km) – unofficial @ 13.45hrs:
Cars
1. Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah (QAT)/Matthieu Baumel (FRA) Mini All4 Racing 3hr 43min 21sec
2. Martin Kaczmarski (POL)/Filipe Palmeiro (PRT) Mini All4 Racing 3hr 54min 36sec
3. Yazeed Al-Rajhi (SAU)/Timo Gottschalk (GER) Toyota Hilux 3hr 55min 16sec
4. Vladimir Vasilyev (RUS)/Konstantin Zhiltsov (RUS) Mini All4 Racing 4hr 04min 22sec
5. Marek Dabrowski (POL)/Jacek Czachor (POL) Toyota Hilux 4hr 07min 57sec
6. Adam Malysz (POL)/Rafal Marton (POL) Toyota Hilux 4hr 12min 55sec
7. Reinaldo Varela (BRA)/Gustavo Gugelmin (BRA) Toyota Hilux 4hr 18min 24sec
8. Krzysztof Holowczyc (POL)/Andreas Schulz (GER) Mini All4 Racing 4hr 24min 29sec
2014 Sealine Cross-Country Rally – overall positions after SS2 – unofficial @ 13.45hrs:
Cars
1. Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah (QAT)/Matthieu Baumel (FRA) Mini All4 Racing 5hr 13min 18sec
2. Yazeed Al-Rajhi (SAU)/Timo Gottschalk (GER) Toyota Hilux 5hr 37min 47sec
3. Vladimir Vasilyev (RUS)/Konstantin Zhiltsov (RUS) Mini All4 Racing 5hr 43min 43sec
4. Adam Malysz (POL)/Rafal Marton (POL) Toyota Hilux 5hr 54min 36sec
5. Krzysztof Holowczyc (POL)/Andreas Schulz (GER) Mini All4 Racing 5hr 58min 10sec
6. Martin Kaczmarski (POL)/Filipe Palmeiro (PRT) Mini All4 Racing 6hr 00min 19sec
7. Marek Dabrowski (POL)/Jacek Czachor (POL) Toyota Hilux 6hr 03min 47sec
8. Miroslav Zapletal (CZE)/Maciej Marton (POL) Hummer H3 6hr 30min 14sec
9. Andrey Cherednikov (KAZ)/Dmitro Tsyro (KAZ) Toyota 6hr 31min 09sec
10. Reinaldo Varela (BRA)/Gustavo Gugelmin (BRA) Toyota Hilux 6hr 33min 30sec
