Alkass Digital
Qatar's Nasser Saleh Al Attiyah and his co-driver Edouard Boulanger sealed a hard-earned victory at the bp Ultimate Rally-Raid Portugal in Grândola yesterday.
The Prodrive Hunter crew had to defend an overnight lead of 2min 41sec over Portugal’s João Ferreira and the second quickest time on the day’s stage enabled the Qatari to move 12 points clear of Carlos Sainz in the unofficial FIA World Rally-Raid Championship (W2RC) Drivers’ Championship standings and lift Nasser Racing by Prodrive into contention for the W2RC Manufacturers’ crown.
Nasser Saleh Al Attiyah drives during the final round.
Al Attiyah, who had a winning margin of 2min 49sec, said: “Portugal is almost my second home. I have a lot of friends here and I’m really happy to win this fantastic race. Thank you to all the fans and thanks to the organisation. It was a very technical race and we had to be smart. After the win in Abu Dhabi, winning here was very important because it enabled us to take the lead in the World Championship.”
The final stage was split into two sections with the first looping around Grândola for 101km before a final regroup took competitors into a short 3.7km sprint in front of live television cameras and thousands of spectators. Ferreira and Filipe Palmeiro enjoyed a superb event over home terrain in the first of the latest X-Raid Mini JCW Rally Plus machines and held off Toyota Gazoo Racing’s Lucas Moraes and Armand Monleón to claim the runner-up spot, despite losing the bonnet on the Mini.
Ferreira said: “It’s difficult to explain the emotions I experienced throughout the week. We received incredible support from this unique audience in the world in a very varied and beautiful race. The tension was high because there was a lot of attention around us, but everything went very well and I confess that I didn’t imagine finishing in second place on my debut with this car in W2RC.”
Moraes overhauled Ferreira’s team-mates Carlos Sainz and Alex Haro and pushed the Spaniards down to fourth position, the result also lifting Moraes into contention for the top three in the title race.
“What a great fight,” said Moraes. “Firstly, congratulations to the entire organisation for managing to put together this race. It is very important to have the World Cup in Europe. An overall podium and victory in this stage are important points for the championship.”
Sainz added: “It was a difficult but positive rally. It’s always a pleasure to come to Portugal and I was pleased to take part and gain important experience. I would have liked the race to start tomorrow to try some things, but I’m happy.”
Despite Moraes’s third place and the fastest time on the final stage, it was a disappointing event for Toyota with early season front-runners Guerlain Chicherit and Guillaume de Mévius struggling to make headway and Yazeed Al Rajhi having to battle his way back to fifth after a crash on stage three.
Al-Rajhi said: “It was not easy for us after the accident two days ago and we lost a lot of time. Thanks to Carlos Barbosa and all his team for the organisation. We enjoy it here and we feel like it was home. I think Timo (Gottschalk) and I did a good job. We had some bad luck on one of the days but we had a lot of fun. Thank you to the crowd, which was exceptional.”