Nasser Al Attiyah and co-driver Matthieu Baumel won the opening round of the FIA World Cup for Cross Country Rallies today, the pair winning four of the six selective sections to claim a commanding 11 minute 10 second victory on the Qatar Cross Country Rally. Reigning Champion Jakub Przygonski, and co-driver Timo Gottschalk, laid down their intention to challenge for second at the end of the penultimate leg yesterday but lost out to Yazeed Al Rajhi and Dirk Von Zitzewitz who took the position and a one-two for Toyota by a mere 46 seconds after 1,398.60 kilometres of competition. (Update below).

Today’s final leg again took the crews out to the west on a northerly route around the tip of the State before heading south for the finish of the 263.88 kilometre section. Al Attiyah was able to manage his pace through the final leg and he and Baumel, who takes his fifth win in Qatar, notched up Toyota’s fourth victory on one of the most tricky navigation events on the calendar.

“I am happy to win my rally in Qatar seven times,” said Al Attiyah, referring to an additional victory on the 2011 Qatar International Baja, a candidate for the FIA series. “This is nice for the championship. I took it easy this morning with no risks. We had a good gap over the last four days and we just needed to finish without any problems.”

Adding to his comments, co-driver Baumel said: “It’s never really easy in Qatar, but one of the big differences is Nasser’s experience and knowledge here; he knows very quickly to choose the direction. It’s a very satisfying win, especially for Nasser, Qatar and the start of our Championship.”

Al Rajhi came under serious threat from third-placed Przygonski, but had his own strategy to manage the gap to the Pole being that he started one position ahead today. The crews went into the final section split by 3’14” and by the 139 kilometre mark Przygonski had reeled in 54 seconds to reduce the virtual gap to 2’20”. Powering over the rough and rocky terrain in his John Cooper Works Rally Mini, Przygonski took more time out of the Saudi Arabian in the final part of the section, never giving up, but just ran out of kilometres to reduce the 46-second deficit further. He nevertheless enjoyed a great fight and became the third driver to win a selective section alongside Al Attiyah and Al Rajhi.

Vladimir Vasilyev, the 2014 World Cup winner, finished a lone fourth in the BMW X3CC, the Russian a further 43 minutes adrift and disappointed with the result after finishing second last year. Yasir Hamad Seaidan maintained his fifth position in the X-raid Mini and Bernhard Ten Brinke recovered from mechanical and navigation issues earlier in the event to finish sixth in the third Toyota Hilux Overdrive.

Reinaldo Marques Varela took the win in the T3 category and finished seventh overall in the Can-Am Maverick. He led a trio of T3 vehicles; Russia’s Fedor Vorobyev was second in the category and Camelia Liparoti - the only female competitor - finished third and ninth overall. Eugenio Amos recovered from problems earlier in the event to finish inside the top 10, albeit with significant time penalties. Mohammed Al Meer claimed victory in the T2 category and Ibrahim Al Muhana from Saudi Arabia won T4 in a Mercedes Unimog.

The second round of the FIA World Cup for Cross Country Rallies takes the contenders to Abu Dhabi for the Desert Challenge (30 March-4 April), which follows the Dubai International Baja (7-9 March), the second round of the FIA World Cup for Cross Country Bajas.

Qatar Cross Country Rally - Final Provisional classification (14:00 hrs local)

UPDATE

Following post event scrutineering, the Stewards received a report from the FIA Technical Delegate regarding the weight of Car No. 201 (Jakub Przygonski/Timo Gottschalk).

Having deliberated, the Stewards concluded that 4 kg below the minimum weight is a breach of Article 8.7 of the FIA Cross Country General Prescriptions and decided to disqualify the competitor.

The full Decision can be found on the following link: http://qatarcrosscountry.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Doc-2.6-STW-Decision-Nr-5.pdf

Qatar Cross Country Rally - Final Classification

Jakub Przygonski and Yazeed Al Rajhi at the finish of the Qatar Cross Country Rally

Reinaldo Marques Varela wins T3 in Qatar

Ibrahim Al Muhana claimed the T4 win