Al Attiyah edges close to world title after Poland win

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Szczecin, September 4:Qatar's Nasser Saleh Al Attiyah edged closer towards retaining his FIA Cross-Country Rally world title after his resounding win in the ninth round at Poland.

It was a good outing for Overdrive Racing astheir recorded their seventh victory of the season

Al Attiyah and French navigator Matthieu Baumel finished 3min 54sec in front of series rival Jakub Przygonski in the rally based in Szczecin.

The ace Qatari now takes an unofficial 81-point championship lead to the remaining two rounds of the series in Morocco and Portugal, where there are a maximum 90 points at stake for the winner of both events.

"I am delighted to take another important victory with this win in Poland," said Al Attiyah. "I built up a good lead on Saturday and I was able to slow down a bit and control the pace."

Four of Overdrive Racing's Toyota Hiluxes reached the finish: Dutchman Bernhard Ten Brinke and Belgian navigator Stéphane Prevot rounded off the podium places with an excellent third position and the Polish duo of Aron Domzala and Szymon Gospodarczyk finished fifth. Peter Van Merksteijn returned to cross-country action and teamed up with Frenchman Pascal Maimon to claim eighth in the fourth Hilux.

Al Attiyah made his intentions perfectly clear in the opening 7.08km Prologue stage on Friday evening. The Qatari carded the fastest time of 6min 09.7sec to snatch a lead of 5.1 seconds from series rival and Polish driver Jakub Przygonski. Domzala, Ten Brinke, Munk, and Van Merksteijn were fourth, seventh, ninth and 11th.

"I was quite surprised that we won the Prologue," said Al Attiyah. Domzala said: "To be honest, I did not expect such tough conditions. We went off the road a few times and each of those cost me some seconds."

Al Attiyah opted to start the opening selective section of 215.90km through the Drawsko Pomorskie military firing range from third position. The Qatari's starting position worked well and he safely negotiated the opening stage with the fastest time of 2hrs 21min 07sec to extend his lead over Przygonski to 27.1 seconds. T

Attiyah was slower on his second run through the stage but still set the quickest time and extended his advantage over Przygonski to 4min 09sec, as Domzala, Ten Brinke and Van Merksteijn were second, fourth and eighth quickest and held fifth, third and eighth at the overnight halt in Szczecin.

"We managed to finish both stages without any problems," admitted Al Attiyah. "It was not easy. There were plenty of puddles lurking in the road and, in some places, it was incredibly muddy and slippery."

Przygonski trimmed Al-Attiyah's lead to 4min 07sec through the re-run of the Krzekowo special, where Ten Brinke, Domzala and Van Merksteijn retained third, fifth and eighth overall, but the sixth quickest time in the second pass through Lubieszyn enabled Al Attiyah to claim his sixth win of this year's FIA World Cup campaign.