The X-Raid Mini Team’s Denis Krotov and Konstantin Zhiltsov overcame a puncture on the opening day to set the fastest time on day two and confirm a comfortable maiden win for the new petrol-engined Mini JCW Rally 3.0i at the three-day Qatar International Baja.

Krotov trailed the overnight-leading Dania Akeel and Stéphane Duplé by over one and a half minutes heading into the final morning of the sixth round of the FIA World Baja Cup. But a small navigational error by the Saudi let him through and a late steering arm breakage for the Overdrive Racing driver enabled Krotov to seal victory by 30min 06.7sec.

Krotov said: “I am very happy to come back to Qatar and take the win with the new petrol Mini. This race is very challenging and tough for the driver, co-driver and the car. I am proud that we have the first victory with X-Raid in the new car. I am sure this project has a great future. Thanks to the organisers for an amazing race. Our crew was on the podium last year and now we have won.”

Akeel was able to repair the Toyota’s teering with a hefty time loss that pushed her down to an eventual fifth place but it opened the door for the Portuguese pairing of João Ferreira and Filipe Palmeiro to snatch second place and vital FIA World Baja Cup points in their Can-Am Maverick XRS Turbo RR. The result also enabled them to close the gap on Fernando Alvarez and Xavier Panseri in the Drivers’ and Co-drivers’ Championships and win he SSV category.

Ferreira said: “It’s been a season with many races and many achievements. This result is very important for our goals in the World Cup. We really want to try and win the competition and are now just five points behind the lead. We’re going to do our best to fight for good results in Jordan and Dubai. We know anything can happen in racing and we have to be careful.”

Their Santag Racing team-mates João Dias and Gonçalo Reis rounded off the podium places in the second of the Can-Ams to boost their FIA World Cup title challenge.

Czech Miroslav Zapletal and his Slovakian co-driver Marek Sykora finished fourth in a self-built Ford F-150 Evo and Akeel’s Overdrive Racing team-mate Akira Miura was sixth after a late 10-minute time penalty for a tyre infringement. Akeel, for her part, still claimed maximum points in the FIA Middle East Baja Cup, while was third in the Ultimate section of the FIA World Cup behind Krotov and Zapletal.

The South Racing Can-Am Team’s Alvarez and Panseri collected valuable FIA World Baja Cup points for finishing seventh and sixth of the registered crews. They still lead the overall FIA World Baja Cup and the SSV Championship.

Anja van Loon (Can-Am) entered a South Racing Can-Am with fellow Dutch girl Floor Maten and the duo finished eighth to secure success in the Challenger category. Qatar’s Rashid Al-Muhannadi was ninth but not registered for points in his Taurus T3 Max and Emirati Khalid Al-Jafla rounded of the top 10 in a similar car.

Al-Jafla came into the event trailing Spaniard Eduardo Pons by 19 points in the Challenger section but his win and fuel consumption and navigational issues for Pons have closed the gap in the championship race.

Pons eventually finished fourth of the registered World Cup drivers in Qatar behind Van Loon, Al-Jafla and the title-chasing Argentinian Diego Martinez in his South Racing Can-Am. Martinez overcame a 17-minute time penalty for missing two waypoints on day one to finish third. Al-Jafla’s co-driver Andrei Rudnitski continues to lead the Challenger Co-drivers’ Championship.

The Lusail-based was organised by the Qatar Motor and Motorcycle Federation (QMMF) and attracted 36 starters: there were eight registered in the Ultimate section, 13 competing in the Challenger group, 12 in SSV, two in the Stock category and a development Can-Am Maverick R running in an Experimental section that was not eligible for the main FIA event.  Twelve were eligible for the FIA World Baja Cup and 14 challenged for points in the FIA Middle East Baja Cup.

Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah was a late entry and stunned his rivals with the quickest time on the Prologue, the Qatari beating his brother Khalifa by 12.2 seconds, despite a 15-second penalty for missing stage gates. Taurus T3s running in the Challenger section earned the top four positions with road opening duties for stage one eventually falling to Krotov.

Navigational woes and the rocky terrain caused chaos across the field on day one over two tricky stages in the northwestern deserts. Akeel and Krotov were first and second overall and headed their respective FIA World and Middle East Baja Cup battles but punctures cost Miura and Ahmed Al-Kuwari a lot of time, navigational woes plagued Pons and five-time Dakar winner Al-Attiyah lost the oil out of his Taurus’s engine.

Al-Attiyah was unable to start the final 251.10km run from the west of Qatar and via the Inland Sea and the Sealine dunes to a finish to the east of the oil terminal at Mesaieed. Krotov claimed the fastest time overall on his way to victory and Qatari drivers Abdulaziz Al-Kuwari and Ahmed Al-Kuwari were fastest in the Challenger and SSV categories.

A front suspension breakage cost Saudi Arabia’s Ibrahim Al-Muhanna valuable time in the SSV tussle and Italy’s Amerigo Ventura suffered time penalties for missing waypoints and lost further ground on his rivals.

The South Racing Can-Am Team continues to lead the Teams’ Championship from Overdrive Racing.

Maximum FIA Middle East Baja Cup points for Dania Akeel

Dania Akeel may have suffered the disappointment of losing second place overall in the closing kilometres but scant consolation for the Saudi was picking up maximum points in the FIA Middle East Baja Cup.

Akeel said: “We had a great day opening the stage. That was something new for us. We were in second place until 10km from the end when one of the steering arms came loose. It came off. We ended up finishing fifth instead of second. That happens sometimes. That’s part of the game. We came here to learn and train and we learned a lot.”

Qatar’s Nouef Al-Sowaidi (Taurus), Saudi Arabia’s Maha Al-Hameli (Can-Am) and local driver Abdullah Al-Khelaifi (Yamaha) rounded off the top four finishers in the FIA Middle East Baja Cup. Al-Sowaidi may well have finished higher had he not suffered two punctures on the first day.

Quaddy Racing’s Ahmed Al-Kuwari began the event with a slender overall lead in the FIA Middle East Cup and the SSV class but tyre issues and punctures cost him a lot of time on day one. He fought back strongly to set the fastest time in stage three and picked up points for fifth in the new Yamaha YXZ 1000R Short Shift. Saudi Arabia’s Hamad Al-Harbi was classified in sixth.

Majed Al-Thunayyan led the Stock category before the event in his Nissan Patrol but finished second in Qatar to local driver Abdullah Al-Rabban.

Abdulaziz Al-Kuwari is the recently-crowned FIA Middle East rally champion but his switch to Baja racing in a Taurus T3 Max was not as lucrative. The Qatari lost over 90 minutes with electrical gremlins and fuel pressure issues on day one and finished seventh in the FIA Middle East Baja Cup.

Two hours of time penalties were awarded to Abdulaziz Al-Yaeesh for running off-road tyres not fitted with FIA bar codes. Al-Yaeesh also relinquished any points he would have earned in the FIA Middle East Baja Cup. Kuwait’s Nasser Al-Ajmi retired his Nissan Patrol after the second stage and engine issues on SS2 sidelined Khalifa Saleh Al-Attiyah in his Nasser Racing Taurus T3 Max.

The seventh round of the FIA World Baja Cup and round three of the FIA Middle East Baja Cup takes crews to the Red Sea port of Aqaba in Jordan on November 14th-16th.

2024 Qatar International Baja - Final results

*denotes registered for the FIA World Baja Cup

+ denotes registered for the FIA Middle East Baja Cup