• Nasser Al-Attiyah holds the overall lead
With the first two stages of Qatar’s Sealine Cross Country Rally contested, local hero and MINI ALL4 Racing driver Nasser Al-Attiyah is the overall leader. Together with his French co-driver Mattieu Baumel, he secured two stage wins. Meanwhile, Russian pairing Vladimir Vasilyev / Konstantin Zhiltsov and their MINI ALL4 Racing currently hold third place, with Krzysztof Holowczyc (POL) / Andreas Schulz (GER) currently holding fifth position, followed by Martin Kaczmarski (POL)/Filipe Palmeiro (POR) who contest the event for the LOTTO X-raid Team.
In stage one, everything went according to plan, for X-raid. Al-Attiyah won the stage, followed by his team-mates Holowczyc and Vasilyev. Day two, however, represented a major challenge for the navigators. While Al-Attiyah and his co-driver didn’t encounter any major problems when it came to finding the way, several other competitors – inter alia Kaczmarski and Vasilyev – lost their way. Nonetheless, the two drivers succeeded in finishing second and fourth respectively. Holowczyc also needed some time to find the way and in addition, he lost several minutes due to the handbrake getting stuck.
Overall after Leg 2:
1st N. Al-Attiyah (QAT)/M. Baumel (FRA) MINI ALL4 Racing - 5h 13m 18s
2nd Y. Al-Rajhi (SAU)/T. Gottschalk (GER) Toyota - 5h 37m 47s
3rd V. Vasilyev (RUS)/K. Zhiltsov (RUS) - MINI ALL4 Racing - 5h 43m 43s
4th A. Malysz (POL)/R. Marton (POL) Toyota - 5h 54m 36s
5th K. Holowczyc (POL)/A. Schulz (GER) MINI ALL4 Racing - 5h 58m 10s
6th M. Kaczmarski (POL)/F. Palmeiro (POR) MINI ALL4 Racing - 6h 00m 19s
