- Still another three FIA World Cup rounds to be contested
By winning the Hungarian Baja with his MINI ALL4 Racing, last weekend, Qatar’s Nasser Al-Attiyah took the FIA Cross Country Rally World Cup lead. Together with his French co-driver Mathieu Baumel he won the event with a clear lead over Dutchman Bernhard Ten Brinke and Czech Miroslav Zapletal.
Al-Attiyah started into the Baja with a success: he won the 2.5-kilometre prologue on Friday and consequently, he was the second to start into the first special stage on Saturday. Due to problems with a brake disc he slightly backed off to win the special stage and cross the finish line with a 13-second lead over Ten Brinke, nevertheless. The mechanics were able to solve the problem in the 30-minute service and so, Al-Attiyah was able to really go for it and demonstrate his own competitiveness and the one of the MINI ALL4 Racing: in the end, he was nine minutes faster than Zapletal in second position and his lead over Ten Brinke in third place even added up to 22 minutes. Therefore, he could contest the third and final special stage on Sunday without taking any risks and finished second. This result was enough for him to win the Baja and take the FIA World Cup lead at the same time. Al-Attiyah now has got 180 points on his tally, nine more than the previous World Cup leader Vasilyev. But there still are 120 points to be scored in the final three events.
“This was a really good Baja for us and in addition we were able to take the World Cup lead,” said Al-Attiyah. “The problem that hampered us on Saturday morning quickly was forgotten as we were able to demonstrate our competitiveness just a short time later. And on Sunday I opted for a more conservative approach to avoid any unnecessary risks. The route was demanding and the temperatures were extremely high.”
