PHARAONS RALLY: Yazeed controls Al Alattiyah, Salvatierra keep Cardona at distance BAHARIJA

PRESS RELEASE
22 may 2014

 – The show of Libyan Egyptian desert performed today during third Pharaons Rally 2014 stage, that ideally related Dakhla and Baharija Oasis with a special stage of 289 km among the wonderful landscapes pilots found around each corner.

Cars fight is becoming interesting, with Nasser Al Attiyah who's trying to regain the gap collected during the first day from Yazeed Al Rajhi.

Qatar “prince” won the stage again today, but Saudi had a delay of 1’23’’ only. More than nine minutes instead, the delay of Dutch Erik Van Loon, third in Baharija finish line.

Vladimir Vasilyev was performing a good trial and seemed to be going through today's victory, but the upper suspension arm breaking made him loose almost one hour for repairing. The fight at the top is among Mini All4Racing and Toyota Overdrive, as confirmed by Marek Dabrowski fourth place, that ended in front of Miroslav Zapletal and Yuriy Sazonov's two Hummer.

In the general ranking Al Rajhi still has more than seven minutes over Al Attiyah, but two stage are still missing before pilots can see Giza Pyramids, so nothing is taken for granted.

Third place in general ranking goes to Polish team with the ex motor bikers Marek Dabrowski and Jacek Czachor.

Among bikes, situation seems to clearly rough out in favor of Bolivian Juan Carlos Salvatierra that won today the third consecutive stage. Once again he was before Venezuelan Nicolas Cardona, just for one minute today.

Salvatierra can sleep soundly as he can count on an advantage of over half an hour on Cardona.

Third overall in bike/quad category, Polish Rafal Sonik, defending World Champion, does not seem to have any foes among quads, having his direct competitor, Stefano Dalla Valle a delay of five hour.
Behind him Italians Domenico Cipollone and Stefano Turchi.

Nicolas Cardona: “Today's stage has been very calm for me. It was fast but not so complicated in navigation. Landscapes here are amazing. I have to carefully drive in order to Reach Pyramids in a good position. My Yamaha is not very fast, so I have to be careful and safeguard mechanics.”

Rafal Sonik: “Today I've run a stage without technical problems in the more beautiful desert I know. There were some “whale back” dunes and it has been the more beautiful.
It's one oh those days that give you an answer about why you run rallies. I do not know why official pilots did not come to Egypt, maybe because is far from home, but being in such places make me feel privileged.

Nasser Al Attiyah: “It has been a good day, we tried to push at the maximum level. Until CP1 we had gained a good advantage on Yazeed, then he recovered, we do not know how. Tomorrow we'll try again, no strategy, just full gas. It has been the most beautiful day of the rally, with lots of sandy areas and very technical plateau.”

Miroslav Zapletal: “It has been the first day without problems, because during the first stage we had overheating problems with the gearbox, and yesterday two navigation mistakes cost 40 minutes. The stage today was very fast and sometimes stony, but we amused a lot.”

Yara Shalabi: “I ride since one year and the half and I wanted to attend last year Pharaons Rally, so I'm very happy to be here this year. During yesterday stage I had turbo problems and I could not exceed 80km/h, so we had to ride dunes during the night .
We looked after waypoint until 1a.m., then we slept in the desert and reached the bivouac this morning only, just before starting. Stage today has been beautiful , half with very soft sand , really amusing and the other half stony. Tomorrow we will have lots of dunes, that I like a lot.”