Qatar’s Nasser Saleh Al Attiyah started second on the road and managed to pass Poland’s Jakub Przygonski to claim victory on the third 249km selective section of the Hail Cross-Country Rally yesterday.
Assuming that the Qatari’s Toyota Hilux passes all post-event scrutineering checks, he has already done enough to secure a fifth FIA World Cup title.
He and co-driver Matthieu Baumel managed to beat stage runner-up Vladimir Vasilyev by 3min 57sec and will take a lead of 18min 18sec over Russia’s Denis Krotov into the final day.
Al Attiyah said: “A good day for us and another stage win under our belts. Now we need to bring the car safely to the finish tomorrow.”
Przygonski had been challenging Krotov for second place, but the Pole suffered a broken drive shaft on the day’s stage and finished 39min 26sec behind Al Attiyah, the time loss dropping the Mini John Cooper Works Buggy driver to sixth overall.
The Argentine duo of Sebastien Halpern and Lucio Alvarez completed the day’s timed section with the third and fourth quickest times and now hold fourth and fifth in the overall classification.
Spaniard Laia Sanz bounced back from second day delays and now holds 10th.
Various time penalties were imposed on several T3 and T4 competitors before the restart, but the Polish duo of Michal and Marek Goczal actually benefited from time deductions after rally officials had further examined their paths through the first stage on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s Ievgen Kovalevych had rolled in the dunes on Thursday and plummeted to the foot of the T4 standings when time penalties were imposed.
Gearbox issues cost Michal Goczal his T4 lead, however, and his brother Marek set the fastest time on the day’s stage and moved 25min 37sec in front of Australia’s Molly Taylor.
Saleh Al Saif was again the dominant force in T3 and the Saudi increased his lead over Mashael Al Obaidan to 44min 37sec with another stage win. Al Obaidan edged 42 seconds further away from Germany’s Annett Fischer in the battle for second place.
Abdullah Lanjawi claimed the motorcycle stage win but seventh place on the day for Othman Al Ghfeli meant the Saudi maintained an advantage of 11min 21sec over Mishal Al Ghuneim to take into the final day.
