Al Attiyah extends Silk Way Rally lead

Bengaluru, July 10: Dakar Rally champion Nasser Saleh Al Attiyah and his French navigator Matthieu Baumel extended their overall advantage to 13min 53sec after a second successive stage win on the timed section of the 2019 Silk Way Rally between Baikalsk and Ulan-Ude in Eastern Siberia.

The second stage of the revised rally ran for 207.67km in a day's route of 409.34km between Baikalsk and the night halt in Ulan-Ude.

It ran on gravel tracks through a mountain pass, taiga forests and across various bridges and spectacular Siberian terrain to finish on the steppes plateau.

The Overdrice Racing driver carded a time of 2hrs 15min 51sec for the varied special to beat second-placed Chinese driver Lui Kun by 7min 40sec.

The year's Silk Way Rally is a candidate race for possible future inclusion in the FIA World Cup for Cross-Country Rallies. The ninth edition of the event finishes in Dunhuang on July 16.

Pushing hard

"I pushed hard on the first stage to gain the advantage, despite the muddy conditions and we found a good pace," said Al Attiyah.

"Now we have a comfortable lead to manage over the coming days. There is a long way to go over many difficult and varied stages," the three-time Dakar champion added.

Selective section

On the third stage, teams tackle a 243km selective section in a route of 691.35km between Ulan-Ude in Eastern Siberia and the Mongolian capital of Ulaanbaatar (formerly known as Ulan Bator).

Ulaanbaatar is the largest city in Mongolia and is located in the central north of the country in the valley of the Tuul River.

Hilux challenge

Unlike Al Attiyah, it was a disappointing second stage for the Qatari's two Overdrive Racing team-mates in their Toyota Hiluxes.

Saudi Arabia's Yazeed Al Rajhi and German navigator Dirk von Zitzewitz began the day in third position after a slow puncture cost them a potential second place on the opening day.

But the Riyadh driver suffered technical issues on the special and was not able to continue. The Saudi had been running fastest overall at WP1 (52km) before initially stopping on the track for over 15 minutes and then ceding further time as the stage progressed.

Following closely

Dutchman Erik van Loon has teamed up with Frenchman Sebastien Delaunay for the first time in Russia, but transmission problems thwarted their progress and they face a fight back through the field over the coming days after losing over two and a half hours to the stage winner after 101km of the stage.

Frenchman Jerome Pelichet had been running second overall after the opening day and he slipped to third with fellow countryman Matthieu Serradori and China's Han Wei following closely in the overall car rankings.