HAIL (SAUDI ARABIA): Nasser Saleh Al Attiyah held his nerve to set a second successive fastest time and seal victory in Hail Baja 1, round four of the FIA World Cup for Cross-Country Bajas, on Saturday.
Despite opening the road on the 275.54lkm stage and having the extra burden of navigation, the Toyota Hilux driver and his French navigator Matthieu Baumel stayed ahead of closest rivals Carlos Sainz and Stéphane Peterhansel to win the stage by 3min 20sec and seal a winning margin of 6min 10sec.
Al-Attiyah said: “It was a good day for us. We believed in our speed. We opened the road but we only had one way and that was to push. We make incredible stage without mistake, no problems and no punctures. I am happy to win Baja 1. Now we have two days of rest. Baja 2 will be different but we try to do our best. Third win in Hail and hopefully the fourth one is coming very soon.”
Sainz and Peterhansel were closely matched throughout the challenging stage in the two new Mini John Cooper Works Buggies and reached the finish in second and third overall.
Double Dakar and WRC series winner Sainz said: “All is okay, no problem. We keep planning and we will try a couple more things a day after tomorrow.”
“Today was an interesting stage, a mix of fast tracks, sandy tracks and dunes with a very beautiful landscape,” said third-placed Peterhansel.
“This two days of racing was interesting with a good level of organisation, good road book and this is a great opportunity
just before the Dakar to do it.”
Five-time Hail Rally winner Yazeed Al-Rajhi had to settle for fourth place on the first of the Bajas, the Saudi driver finishing 14min 48sec behind his winning Toyota team-mate.
“I enjoyed this rally as preparation for Dakar and everything went well,” said Al-Rajhi.
“First day we had a small issue and we didn’t take too much risk today. I think the next race, we need to improve a little bit in the soft and slow dunes because you do not need to push more. When you push more, you lose time.”
