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Al Attiyah wins third stage to take command over FIA Qatar Cross-Country Rally

The five-time event winner opened the road on the longest stage of the entire event (351.98km) and overcame the tricky navigation and a series of unforgiving sand dunes to card the target time of 3hrs 27min 33sec.

Nasser Saleh Al Attiyah

Bengaluru/Doha, February 25: A third successive stage victory for Qatar's Nasser Saleh Al Attiyah and French co-driver Matthieu Baumel enabled the Toyota Hilux crew to extend their overall lead in the Manateq Qatar Cross-Country Rally to 9min 52sec.

The five-time event winner opened the road on the longest stage of the entire event (351.98km) and overcame the tricky navigation and a series of unforgiving sand dunes to card the target time of 3hrs 27min 33sec.

Team-mates Yazeed Al Rajhi and Dirk von Zitzewitz pushed the Qatari hard from the outset and the second fastest time enabled the Toyota driver to edge in front of Polish rival Jakub Przygonski and his German navigator Timo Gottschalk in the overall standings. The two are now separated by just 54 seconds in the fight for second place.

Good day

Good day

Al Attiyah, who won his third Dakar crown recently said:, "Another good day, but it was not easy at all. We started from the sand dunes and the navigation was a little bit difficult. We didn't make any mistakes.

"We try to push in some places where I felt good, but I also tried to save our car because that is important. We had a problem with one tyre (delaminating), but we managed."

Hard navigation

Hard navigation

Przygonski, the defending champion said, "The stage was good and we enjoyed it. It was hard navigation, but we didn't have any issues. We are pushing.

"The first part was good, for sure, but the last part we lose a bit of rhythm and we don't know how or why. There were a lot of dunes at the start and the track was really nice to drive today."

Dunes okay

Dunes okay

"Everything is okay," said Al Rajhi.

"We had one puncture about 10km from the finish, but it was okay. The dunes and the navigation were okay. We tried to push as much as we could in the middle of the stage."

Ahmed in control

Ahmed in control

Qatar's Ahmed Al Kuwari and his Italian navigator Manuel Lucchese claimed victory in the second of the Qatar Manateq Bajas with a time of 1hr 54min 21sec at PC2.

There are two selective sections on Monday, split by a road liaison section of 56.39km where service is not permitted.

Story first published: Monday, February 25, 2019, 9:23 [IST]
Other articles published on Feb 25, 2019