The Peninsula
Poland’s Jakub Przygonski beat Qatar’s Nasser Saleh Al Attiyah by 69 seconds to claim the fastest time on the second 314km selective section of the Hail Cross-Country Rally yesterday morning.
But the bonus point that the Qatari collected for setting the second quickest time, coupled with the 1.5 points he earned for being fastest on Wednesday, pushed him ever closer to the FIA World Cup title in the duel with Toyota team-mate Lucio Alvarez. Al Attiyah now leads the event by 7min 11sec, with his title rival down in sixth place, 24min 28sec behind.
Al Attiyah said: “I am quite happy. It was a good stage and we take good points yesterday and today. This is good towards the FIA World Cup. We opened all the way and it was not easy. But we lost only one minute. Tomorrow we start behind Kuba (Przygonski).”
Przygonski and German navigator Timo Gottschalk moved to within three seconds of Denis Krotov’s hold on second place, as the two X-raid Mini John Cooper Works Buggy drivers enjoyed another strong day in the An Nafud desert.
Fellow Mini Buggy driver Sebastien Halpern overhauled Vladimir Vasilyev’s BMW X5 to snatch fourth place, but delays in the desert dropped Spaniard Laia Sanz out of the top 10.
The decision was taken on Thursday afternoon to withdraw Yazeed Al Rajhi’s Toyota from the event. The Saudi had lost too much time with gearbox issues to challenge for the win and early retirement was ultimately the course of action taken.
Martin Prokop continued test and development work on the 2022 specification Ford Raptor Cross-Country, while Juan Cruz Yacopini and Ronan Chabot gained more valuable time with the Overdrive Toyota Hilux T1+.
Three T4 Can-Ams now feature in the overall top 10. Poland’s Michal Goczal holds a fine seventh overall and the lead in the FIA T4 section from his brother Marek and Ukraine’s Ievgen Kovalevych in a third South Racing-built machine. Australia’s Molly Taylor dropped several minutes to her rivals on the day and slipped to fourth in T4 with Dubai-based Briton Thomas Bell in fifth.
Saleh Al Saif extended his FIA T3 lead to 35min 17sec with another fastest time. Dania Akeel came home in an unofficial second place, but Mashael Al Obaidan displaced Germany’s Annett Fischer to snatch second in the category. Ukbekistan’s Anvar Ergashev was forced to retire on Wednesday evening: he had endured pain 500 metres after the start of the first stage and, even though he completed the opening test, it was later discovered that he had an arm fracture...
Othman Al Ghfeli was fastest of the motorcycle entrants on the second stage by 3min 22sec from Mishal Al Ghuneim and the Saudi moved into a lead of 13min 47sec over his rival.