Press Release
The first competitive day of FIA Cross Country Rally “Rally Kazakhstan 2019” is over. According to the results of the first stage, Yazeed Al-Rajhi from Saudi Arabia set the best time, the winner of “Rally Kazakhstan 2017” Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah from Qatar, showed the second result, and the Polish crew rally driver Jakub Przygonski set the third result. The distance of the first stage of the “Rally Kazakhstan 2019” was 280 kilometers.
In the first leg of the rally the participants drove to the south from the city of Aktau towards Kenderli resort, located 210 km south-east from the regional center. The first competitive day was tightly contested. The world best racers started actively and were moving to the finish with short gaps. A favorable weather allowed the racers to drive fast to the finish of the first competition day. All participants of the “Rally Kazakhstan 2019” crossed the finish line without difficulty and technical incidents.
One of the Kazakhstan round favorites, current champion of the Dakar rally, Qatari Nasser Saleh Al-Attiya (Nasser Al-Attiya Team) together with his co-driver Matthieu Bomel on their Toyota Hilux Overdrive, started perfectly and firmly kept the leading positions to the finish, covering the distance for 2 hours 22 minutes and 3 seconds. However, it later became known that Nasser was fined for 1 minute for speeding in the restricted area. Thus, he yielded first place to the crew of the “Rally Kazakhstan 2018” winner, Yazeed Al-Rajhi (Overdrive Racing). Racer from Saudi Arabia on Toyota Hilux Overdrive finished with a result of 2 hours 22 minutes and 5 seconds.
Nasser Saleh al-Attiyah had to change the wheel during the race, but despite the time lost he he managed to finish as one of the leaders. The racer from Qatar after the races shared his impressions about the first day of competition.
Preliminary results after SS1:
Yazeed Al-Rajhi, Dirk von Zitzewitz, X-Raid Team 2:22:05
Nasser Al Attiyah, Matthieu Bomel, Nasser Al-AttiyaTeam 2:23:03
Jakub Przygonski, Timo Gottschalk, Orlen X-raid Team 2:25:04
Vladimir Vasiliev, Konstantin Zhiltsov, VRT Team 2:29:52
Bernard ten Brinke, Tom Colsul, Overdrive Racing 2:30:26
Denis Krotov, Dmitry Ziro, MSK Rally Team 2:42:07
Miroslav Zapletal, Sikora M., Zapletal Miroslav Team 2:43:04
Stephane Peterhansel, Andrea Peterhansel, X-raid MINI JCW Team 2:44:53
Andrey Cherednikov, Ignat Falkov, OFF ROAD Kazakhstan Team 2:47:39
Alexey Ignatov, Evgeny Pavlov, GAZ RAID SPORT Team 3:08:53
Gurbanberdi Danatarov, Rafael Gainulin, Turkmenistan Autosport Federation Team 3:12:24
Evgeny Sukhovenko, Kirill Chapayev, GAZ RAID SPORT Team 3:42:45
Alexander Sukhov and Azamat Munalov, Aktau Motorsport Team 4:13:48