2012 FIA World Cup for Cross-Country Rallies, round 3
2012 FIM Cross-Country Rallies World Championship, round 2
For immediate release
Saturday, April 21st 2012
AL-ATTIYAH, COMA AND SONIK CLAIM OUTRIGHT
VICTORIES IN QATAR’S SEALINE CROSS-COUNTRY RALLY
· Final day stage wins for Al-Attiyah, Barreda Bort and Sonik
· Spain’s Marc Coma seals second successive World Cup win for KTM
· Poland’s Rafal Sonik snatches quad win from troubled Al-Kitbe
SEALINE BEACH RESORT (Qatar): Qatar’s Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah, Spain’s
Marc Coma and Poland’s Rafal Sonik claimed outright victories in their
respective car, motorcycle and quad categories after the final
208.63km special stage of the Sealine Cross-Country Rally on Saturday.
Stage wins on the final day fell to Al-Attiyah, Spain’s Joan Barreda
Bort and Sonik in the three respective categories.
Al-Attiyah began the stage defending a massive lead of 46m 09s in his
Overdrive Toyota Hilux and there was no way that the Qatari was going
to throw away a crucial home victory by taking unnecessary risks. He
judged his pace over the final stage to perfection to confirm a 49m
23s win.
“This is a fantastic win for me and a chance to win another event in
another car,” said Al-Attiyah. “The Toyota was impressive, so much so
that I would like to continue in the championship in places where
there are no clashes with the MERC and WRC.
“After winning the Bajas here, the Sealine event was totally
different. It was a proper cross-country event. The stages were rough,
challenging and never easy. It was a superb effort by the team at the
QMMF to make such a good rally so soon after entering the
championship.”
Argentina’s Lucio Alvarez benefited from Khalifa Al-Mutaiwei’s last
stage delays to confirm a fine second overall in another Toyota and
Al-Mutaiwei managed to stay in front of FIA World Cup rival Jean-Louis
Schlesser to clinch the final podium position in his Mini All4 Racing.
The Toyota one-two was the biggest result in the history of Overdrive
Racing and a first win for the Japanese manufacturer on a
cross-country rally.
Coma headed Portugal’s Helder Rodrigues by 5m 59s at the start of the
day and needed to run quickly with the leaders to avoid losing too
much time to the Portuguese on the day’s special. He started in third,
with Rodrigues in eighth, and reached the finish with the second
quickest time to record a comfortable 6m 05s victory over Rodrigues,
the defending FIM champion.
Jordi Viladoms finished third on his Bordone-Ferrari Team KTM,
Poland’s Jakub Przygonski was fourth and Portugal’s Ruben Faria
rounded off the top five, but the results were provisional pending an
investigation into a missing stamp on a couple of time cards.
Emirati Obaid Al-Kitbe started the final stage with a 6m 58s lead over
Poland’s Rafal Sonik in the quad category, but mechanical problems
wrecked the UAE rider’s chance of lifting the title and Sonik powered
through to the finish, with Uruguay’s Luis Henderson finishing second
and Qatar’s Adel Hussain Abdullah taking third place.
Stage four – 208.63km
X-raid mechanics worked into the evening to repair the extensive panel
damage on Yazeed Al-Rajhi’s Mini All4 Racing after the Saudi’s
accident on Friday. The defending Ha’il Baja champion was permitted to
start in ninth position, with Al-Attiyah, Schlesser and Al-Mutaiwei
leading the cars away.
Mubarak Al-Hajri’s American mechanics needed to identify the
electrical problem that had plagued his Chevrolet LS3 on day three
before the Qatari could restart from a lowly 15th overall.
Husqvarna also took the decision to permit a shaken Joan Borreda Bort
to restart after his crash on Friday morning. The Spaniard had
finished the stage badly bruised and with broken handlebars on his
bike, but started the stage from 29th position.
Goncalves led the surviving bike and quad riders into the 71.64km
liaison to the start of the final stage, with leader Coma slotting
into third behind Jordi Viladoms. Quad leader Obaid Al-Kitbe was
running in 17th place on the road, three positions behind the previous
stage winner, Lukasz Laskawiec.
Viladoms swiftly caught and passed Goncalves as Coma shadowed the pair
to the first control point. Australian Matthew Fish was also running
well and held the virtual stage lead at PC1 under Barreda Bort stormed
through to set the fastest time. Al-Kitbe headed the quad contingent
from Sonik and Laskawiec.
The first bikes reached PC2 before the cars had arrived at the first
checkpoint and Coma regained the stage advantage from Viladoms and
Goncalves, but Barreda Bort set the fastest time to that point.
Coma held on without problems to claim his second successive outright
FIM World Cup victory, with Rodrigues finishing the stage in third
position to consolidate second overall. Barreda Bort ended a troubled
rally with the fastest time of the day, a scant consolation for his
obvious pace on the Husqvarna during the event.
Al-Attiyah reached the first PC in under 52 minutes and was followed
by Schlesser and Russian Boris Gadasin. Al-Mutaiwei lost a valuable 8m
14s to his French rival for the World Cup after losing his way.
Vladimir Vasilyev was in storming form with his G-Force Proto after a
troubled event: the Russian was quickest overall to the first control
point, as Alvarez settled into a fast pace and Al-Mutaiwei’s problems
meant that he was secure in second place. Yazeed Al-Rajhi punctured
and had a small fire near the brakes and decided to stop his rebuilt
Mini in the stage.
Al-Attiyah reached the last passage control in 1h 26m 43s, where
Vasilyev saw his virtual stage lead whittled down to 20 seconds. The
Qatari held on to finish the stage in a quickest time of 1h 53m 21s
and Lucio Alvarez confirmed second overall at the expense of
third-placed Al-Mutaiwei.
Positions on SS4 (208.63km) - unofficial @ 11.45hrs
Cars
1. Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah (QAT)/Lucas Cruz Senra (ESP) Toyota Hilux 1h 53m 21s
2. Vladimir Vasilyev (RUS)/Vitaliy Yevtyekhov (RUS) G-Force Proto 1h 53m 38s
3. Jean-Louis Schlesser (FRA)/Konstantin Zlitstov (RUS) Schlesser
Original 1h 56m 32s
4. Lucio Alvarez (ARG)/Bernardo Graue (ARG) Toyota Hilux 1h 56m 35s
5. Boris Gadasin (RUS)/Dan Shchemel (RUS) G-Force Proto 1h 57m 05s
6. Khalifa Al-Mutaiwei (UAE)/Andreas Schulz (DEU) Mini All4 Racing 2h 03m 32s
7. Ilya Kusnetsov (RUS)/Roman Elagin (RUS) BMW X3 CC 2h 04m 21s
8. Faisal Al-Attiyah (QAT)/Matthieu Baumel (FRA) Toyota HiLux 2h 18m 00s
9. Mubarak Al-Hajri (QAT)/Arif Yousef Mohammed (UAE) Chevrolet LS3 2h 21m 30s
10. Reinaldo Varala (BRA)/Gustavo Gugelmin (BRA) Nissan Patrol 2h 26m 15s
Bikes
1. Joan Barreda Bort (ESP) Husqvarna TE 449 RR 1h 54m 24s
2. Marc Coma (ESP) KTM 450 Rally Replica 1h 56m 30s
3. Helder Rodrigues (PRT) Yamaha YZ 450 1h 56m 36s
4. Jordi Viladoms (ESP) KTM 450 Rally Replica 1h 57m 54s
5. Ruben Faria (PRT) KTM Rally Replica 1h 58m 51s
6. Matthew Fish (AUS) KTM 450 1h 58m 54s
7. Paolo Goncalves (PRT) Husqvarna TE 449 RR 1h 59m 00s
8. Jakub Przygonski (POL) KTM 450 Rally 2h 00m 55s
9. Alessandro Botturi (ITA) TM 450 Rally 2h 02m 12s
10. Francisco ‘Chaleco’ Lopez (CHI) KTM 450 Rally Replica 2h 02m 25s
Quads
18. Rafal Sonik (POL) Honda TRX 700 2h 25m 03s
21. Lukasz Laskawiec (POL) Yamaha YFM 700 R 2h 29m 55s
23. Adel Hussain Abdullah (QAT) KTM 525 2h 33m 18s
24. Luis Henderson (URY) Yamaha Raptor 700 2h 37m 54s
Overall positions after SS4 - unofficial @ 11.45hrs
Cars
1. Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah (QAT)/Lucas Cruz Senra (ESP) Toyota Hilux 11h 20m 59s
2. Lucio Alvarez (ARG)/Bernardo Graue (ARG) Toyota Hilux 12h 10m 22s
3. Khalifa Al-Mutaiwei (UAE)/Andreas Schulz (DEU) Mini All4 Racing 12h 18m 07s
4. Jean-Louis Schlesser (FRA)/Konstantin Zlitstov (RUS) Schlesser
Original 12h 21m 48s
5. Faisal Al-Attiyah (QAT)/Matthieu Baumel (FRA) Toyota HiLux 13h 02m 48s
6. Boris Gadasin (RUS)/Dan Shchemel (RUS) G-Force Proto 13h 03m 02s
7. Ilya Kusnetsov (RUS)/Roman Elagin (RUS) BMW X3 CC 13h 23m 37s
8. Yayha Al-Helai (UAE)/Khalid Al-Kendi (UAE) Nissan Patrol 16h 26m 40s
9. Reinaldo Varala (BRA)/Gustavo Gugelmin (BRA) Nissan Patrol 16h 43m 23s
10. Vadym Nesterchuk (UKR)/Laurent Lichtleuchter (FRA) Toyota LC200 20h 30m 41s
Bikes
1. Marc Coma (ESP) KTM 450 Rally Replica 13h 54m 43s
2. Helder Rodrigues (PRT) Yamaha YZ 450 14h 00m 48s
3. Jordi Viladoms (ESP) KTM 450 Rally Replica 14h 08m 54s
4. Jakub Przygonski (POL) KTM 450 Rally 14h 14m 06s
5. Ruben Faria (PRT) KTM Rally Replica 14h 16m 49s
6. Gerard Fares Guell (ESP) KTM 450 Rally Replica 14h 38m 45s
7. Paolo Ceci (ITA) KTM 450 Rally Replica 14h 41m 00s
8. Francisco ‘Chaleco’ Lopez (CHI) KTM 450 Rally Replica 14h 42m 07s
9. Matthew Fish (AUS) KTM 450 14h 59m 55s
10. Paolo Goncalves (PRT) Husqvarna TE 449 RR 15h 14m 39s
Quads
16. Rafal Sonik (POL) Honda TRX 700 17h 20m 20s
19. Luis Henderson (URY) Yamaha Raptor 700 17h 40m 07s
20. Adel Hussain Abdullah (QAT) KTM 525 18h 08m 53s
21. Dennis Nikitopoulos (QAT) Yamaha Raptor 700 18h 30m 36s
22. Camelia Liparoti (ITA) Yamaha Raptor 19h 01m 53s
Ends
Neil Perkins, NDP Publicity Services, International Press Officer,
2012 Sealine Cross-Country Rally, Qatar Mobile: + 974 554 79937,
E-mail: NDPPublicity@googlemail.com, www.ndp-publicity.com (press
releases). Facebook group for information: 2011-2012 MERC.
Results: http://timing.sporttraxx.com/races/
Posis: http://vulcain.iritrack.net/tdcom/posi/qatar12_front/web/index.php/display/index
Tracking: http://vulcain.iritrack.net/tdcom/eviewer/qatar12/
Video: http://vimeo.com/channels/sccr
www.qmmf.com
www.merc-fia.com
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