The Toyota Hilux Overdrive crew of Yazeed Al Rajhi and Dirk Von Zitzewitz top the leaderboard after the opening selective section of Rally Kazakhstan. The crew finished second on the stage to Nasser Al Attiyah and Mathieu Baumel, remarkably by just two seconds after 280.35 kilometres of competition. However, Al Attiyah picked up a one-minute penalty for speeding in a neutralisation zone, dropping him to second overnight by 58 seconds. Reigning champion Jakub Pryzgonski, co-driven by Timo Gottschalk, holds third in the MINI John Cooper Works Rally.

The third round of the FIA World Cup for Cross Country Rallies has brought the crews to the arid scrublands, savannahs and deserts of Kazakhstan, the world’s largest landlocked country and the ninth largest in the world. The variety of landscape characterises the event and today the crews headed from Aktau, on the Caspian Sea, for the first of six selective sections that took the event south to the bivouac in Kenderly.

Al Rajhi was fourth into the section; he caught Vladimir Vasilyev ahead of him and then struggled in his dust. Nevertheless, the Hilux Overdrive racer claimed second in the section, an incredible two seconds adrift of stage winner Al Attiyah after nearly two and a half hours of flat out driving. “It was a good stage, we followed [Vladimir] Vasilyev but it wasn’t easy to overtake with the dust and we were behind him for 30 kilometres,” said the Saudi Arabian 2018 winner. “In the end we came to the finish at the same time as Nasser, after his puncture.”

Al Attiyah, who led the crews into the section, suffered a puncture and dropped just over a minute, but otherwise the Qatari had a near perfect stage to overnight second. “It was a very good section and except for one flat tyre, everything was good and we are quite happy,” said the 2017 Rally Kazakhstan winner. “I’m looking forward to tomorrow, the long 414 kilometre stage, and hope it will continue to be good for us.”

Jakub Przygonski and Timo Gottschalk had a trouble-free stage, overhauling three crews to take the third fastest time in the MINI, three minutes off the outright lead. “We had a good stage, no problems,” said the Polish champion. “The first part was technical and we were fast, and the second half was just flat out and we overtook Zapletal, Stéphane [Peterhansel] and Ten Brinke.”

Former World Cup champions Vladimir Vasilyev and co-driver Konstantin Zhiltsov were fourth in the section in another MINI John Cooper Works Rally and the Russians, who finished third on the event last year, are nearly eight minutes adrift. “It was an okay stage for us, nothing special to say,” said Vasilyev. “There were lots of tricky places and it was very very fast at the end, maximum speed.”

Bernhard Ten Brinke and Tom Colsoul were fifth after losing time with a puncture and then exercising caution over the remainder of the section. Denis Krotov/Dmytro Tsyro finished sixth but their gap to the front-runners and the overall lead is now just over 20 minutes. Miroslav Zapletal/Marek Sykora hold seventh in their Ford F-150 Evo ahead of Stéphane and Andrea Peterhansel.

The French/German pairing, who made history on the previous round in Abu Dhabi by taking their first FIA World Cup for Cross Country Rallies victory as husband and wife, had a disastrous opening section to finish eighth. “It was very high speed and the rear right tyre was destroyed,” said the Frenchman. “We didn’t have a puncture, but the tread was flying around the tyre and destroyed the bodywork about 50 kilometres from the end. Before that, we just had one small mistake off the route.” They are nearly 23 minutes adrift.

Andrey Cherednikov/Ignat Falkov are flying the flag for Kazakhstan in ninth overall with Reinaldo Varela and Gustavo Gugelmin 10th, the Brazilians also taking an early T3 two minute 45 second advantage over their nearest championship rivals Fedor Vorobyev and Kirill Shubin, both in Can Am Mavericks. Mohammed al Meer and Alexy Kuzmich head T2 by over 20 minutes.

Tomorrow’s second leg of Rally Kazakhstan, looping around the Kinderly bivouac, is the longest of the event at 414.22 competitive kilometres.

Rally Kazakhstan – Provisional results after Leg 1 (19:00 hrs local)