Alkass Digital
Erfoud, Morocco: Qatar rally driver, Adel Abdulla, was given a nod to start the penultimate selective section of the ‘2018 Rally of Morocco’ by race officials, on Monday. This was following his absence in the two previous legs of the penultimate round of the FIA World Cup for Cross-Country Rallies due to niggling ECU issue on his Nissan Patrol Y62.
The QX Rally Team driver is still optimistic for the rest of the demanding six-day African event, even though he is far behind arch T2 championship rival Ahmed Al-Shegawi and Russian driver Andrey Titov.
Abdulla and his French navigator Jean-Michel Polato started the 342km loop stage through the Erg Chebbi around Erfoud from last position on the road in the car category, but they moved up quickly to finish the “timed test” in an unofficial time of 6hrs 57min 49sec to claim second position in the T2 category behind Al-Shegawi after Titov.
“It was a long stage after the electrical problem we had with the ECU for two days. We managed to fix the car on Sunday. We are still in the race. It was a tough stage with a lot of different terrain, gravel, stones, sand and dunes. It was very tough in the dunes. We passed three or four places with different kinds of dunes. I think we did well. We did not push. The target now is to finish the race and see what will happen with the other competitors,” said Abdulla.