DAY 1
Early advantages for AL-Attiyah, Barreda and Sonik in Sealine Cross-Country Rally
SEALINE (Qatar): Qatar’s Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah, Spaniard Joan Barreda and Poland’s Rafal Sonik were the early leaders of their respective car, motorcycle and quad categories after the short opening 164.18km selective section of the 2014 Sealine Cross-Country Rally in the Qatar deserts on Monday.
Al-Attiyah was the class of the car field in his Mini All4 Racing. The 2012 winner began the day from fourth on the road and survived having to change a flat tyre after the second passage control to set a winning time of 1hr 34min 57sec. The Qatari and his French navigator Matthieu Baumel take a lead of 2min 44sec over Mini team-mates Krzysztof Holowczyc and Andreas Schulz into the second stage on Tuesday.
“It was going well, no problems and then we had a flat tyre and had to stop and change it,” said Al-Attiyah. “It was only a short stage but the navigation was very tricky. Matthieu did a great job.”
Spanish rider Joan Barreda stormed through the field from ninth to seal a stunning opening stage win for Honda. The CRF 450 rider completed the stage 1min 02sec quicker than defending champion Marc Coma (KTM), with Jordi Viladoms reaching the flying finish in third place.
“It was a good stage for me, very happy,” said Barreda. “I rode fast from the start and tried to push and then I slowed down a little in the dunes at the end. I did not want to make a mistake there. We have a good strategy for this race.”
Coma was upbeat in second position. “This is just the first day. We came from Abu Dhabi, where the terrain is quite different and there is more navigation here. We will see tomorrow.”
Emirati rider Mohammed Al-Balooshi was an impressive fourth. “At the moment my navigational skills cannot match my pace. I need to practice my navigation. I rode with the master (Coma) for a while. I really enjoyed that. Today was a great experience for me.”
Poland’s Rafal Sonik held ninth overall and was the quickest of the three quad riders on his Honda. Mohammed Abu Issa was a close second and a mere three seconds in front of Adel Hussein, who lost time after problems with his road book scroll.
“After the last tarmac road, the scroll broke on my road book and I kept having to stop and turn it manually,” said Qatar’s Adel Hussein.
Abu Issa said: “It was a short stage, but very tough. Tomorrow will be cooler at the start, but the last 150km will be boiling and that’s when you get dizzy and need to concentrate. It was harder than I imagined today. I need new knuckles!”
Red Bull KTM factory team rider Sam Sunderland lost his way before the first passage control and dropped over 16 minutes to the leaders trying to regain the correct track. He finished the day in a disappointing seventh position after a late charge through the stage.
SS1 – as it happened
Twenty-two cars, three quads and 15 motorcycles were joined by four cars running in a national event at the rear of the field for the start of the opening 164.18km selective section, near Umm Al-Mawaga, to the west of Doha.
Very hot conditions greeted the riders to the start of the opening section, where passage controls were positioned at the 28.82km and 97.80km points en route to a finish near Sealine to the south of the capital. The varied stage offered tricky navigation and a series of sand dunes and dry lake crossings near the finish.
Portugal’s Ruben Faria was left with the unenviable task of opening the road, with Coma and Goncalves slotting into 10th and 11th positions. The Portuguese reached the first checkpoint in 21min 48sec, but KTM team-mate Sam Sunderland suffered navigational difficulties, was forced to retrace his tracks and dropped over 16 minutes. Barreda opened up a 1min 02sec advantage over Coma heading towards PC2. Sonik was the fastest of the quads and slotted into eighth overall behind Faria, with Adel Hussein close behind.
Barreda was on a charge and the Honda rider, who started the day from ninth on the road, reached PC2 second behind Faria to extend his virtual stage lead over Coma to 2min 34sec.
FIA World Cup leader Vladimir Vasilyev led the cars into action but Al-Attiyah stormed through from fourth on the road and reached PC1 1min 02sec quicker than Holowczyc. Reinaldo Varela was third in the first of the four Toyotas.
The bikes were now reaching the stage finish and was first to the end to win the stage with a time of 1hr 42min 31sec. Coma finished second, 1min 02sec behind, and Jordi Viladoms was third. Faria lost his way after 195km and slipped down the leader board to eighth.
Al-Attiyah extended his virtual stage lead to 3min 02sec at the second passage control over Holowczyz and there was a frantic tussle for third between Marek Dabrowski, Varela and Vladimir Vasilyev.
The Qatari held on to seal the stage win by a margin of 2min 44sec, despite a flat tyre. Holowczyc was second and Vasilyev pipped Yazeed Al-Rajhi to third after Dabrowski rolled and lost time near the finish, slipping from third to eighth overall.
Tomorrow (Tuesday), competitors tackle a 396.46km loop stage through the Qatar desert, with the bikes leading the way in what promises to be a cooler and even more demanding challenge, starting at the earlier time of 07.00hrs. The event finishes at Sealine on Friday afternoon.
2014 Sealine Cross-Country Rally – positions after SS1 (164.18km) – unofficial @ 15.15hrs:
Cars
1. Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah (QAT)/Matthieu Baumel (FRA)
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Mini All4 Racing 1hr 34min 57sec
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2. Krzysztof Holowczyc (POL)/Andreas Schulz (GER) Mini All4 Racing
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1hr 37min 41sec
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3. Vladimir Vasilyev (RUS)/Konstantin Zhiltsov (RUS) Mini All4 Racing
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1hr 44min 21sec
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4. Yazeed Al-Rajhi (SAU)/Timo Gottschalk (GER) Toyota Hilux
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1hr 46min 31sec
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5. Adam Malysz (POL)/Rafal Marton (POL) Toyota Hilux
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1hr 46min 41sec
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6. Miroslav Zapletal (CZE)/Maciej Marton (POL) Hummer H3 Evo
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1hr 57min 28sec
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7. Yuriy Sazonov (KAZ)/Arslan Sakhimov (KAZ) Hummer unne
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1hr 54min 26sec
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8. Marek Dabrowski (POL)/Jacek Czachor (POL) Toyota Hilux
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2hr 00min 50sec
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9. Martin Kaczmarski (POL)/Filipe Palmeiro (PRT) Mini All4 Racing
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2hr 05min 43sec
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Bikes
1. Joan Barreda (ESP) Honda CRF 450
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1hr 42min 31sec
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2. Marc Coma (ESP) KTM 450
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1hr 43min 33sec
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3. Jordi Viladoms (ESP) KTM 450
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1hr 47min 43sec
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4. Mohammed Al-Balooshi (ARE) KTM 450
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1hr 49min 34sec
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5. Helder Rodrigues (PRT) Honda CRF 450
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1hr 51min 55sec
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6. Paolo Goncalves (PRT) Honda CRF 450
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1hr 54min 01sec
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7. Sam Sunderland (GBR) KTM 450
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1hr 59min 34sec
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8. Ruben Faria (PRT) KTM 450
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2hr 01min 43sec
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Quads
9. Rafal Sonik (POL) Honda TRX 700
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2hr 13min 48sec
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10. Mohammed Abu Issa (QAT) Honda TRX 680
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2hr 15min 50sec
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11. Adel Hussein (QAT) Yamaha Raptor 700
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2hr 15min 53sec
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DAY 2
Second Sealine stage victories for Al-Attiyah, sunderland and Abu Issa
- Al-Attiyah, Coma and Abu Issa hold overall Sealine leads
- Navigational mistake costs KTM’s Ruben Faria his chance
- Longest selective section of entire event planned for Wednesday
Al-Attiyah and French co-driver Matthieu Baumel led from start-to-finish in their Mini All4 Racing and managed to extend their overall lead to 24min 29sec over Saudi’s Yazeed Al-Rajhi and his German co-driver Timo Gottschalk in an Overdrive Toyota Hilux.
“It was a good day, no problems,” said the Qatari. “To be the first car and open the road is not easy, but the feeling with the car was incredible. Matthieu did a great job for the second day. I pushed hard and I knew this would be a test for him as well. But it was a good job. Maybe I soften the rear suspension tomorrow to make the wheels travel better over the rocky ground, but I am not worried about opening again. I am very happy.”
Yazeed Al-Rajhi was upbeat despite losing his way three times. “I started well and was driving well,” said the Saudi. “Then we lost our way. It is easy to do that in Qatar. There were three Minis going round and round until one of us found the track. I lost four or five minutes, but the goal was to be in front of Vladimir (Vasilyev) and I am doing that, so that’s okay.”
Overnight motorcycle leader Joan Barreda was always going to struggle opening the stage and he reached the finish in sixth position, as Sunderland claimed the stage win and climbed from seventh overall to fifth.
“It looks good on paper to have won the stage, but the strategy and the tactics mean that I will lose it all again tomorrow,” said Sunderland. “Nice stage, tricky navigation and it’s good to get the stage win, but this rally had no Prologue and my seeding position was not really favourable, so I’m back to square one again.”
Coma holds the unofficial lead. “Today was a better rhythm and a better balance for me,” said the four-time Dakar winner. “It’s a case of finding the balance between speed and concentrating on the navigation. To lead the way for 400km is never easy. Temperatures were not a factor, but the sand is more compact in the mornings and that helps a lot. I will just keep going and see.”
Qatar’s Abu Issa was in inspired form on his Honda quad and he managed to catch and ride with Poland’s Rafal Sonik to extend the lead he had inherited on Monday evening when Sonik incurred a five-minute time penalty. Adel Hussein Abdullah was running well behind the leading duo in third place.
“I started two minutes behind Rafal (Sonik) and managed to catch and ride with him,” said Abu Issa. Then, after 178km, at the refuel, I got fuel in my googles and they began to melt. I had to ride on without goggles until Rafal lent me a pair of googles. It was not comfortable at all today, but I managed to keep the lead.”
SS2 – as it happened
The 396.46km second selective section included four passage controls at the 29.75km, 130.03km, 178.67km and 244.93km points. Three quads, 15 motorcycles and 20 cars started the special. A fire had badly damaged Saudi driver Ahmed Al-Shegawi’s Chevrolet Buggy on Monday afternoon and he retired.
Rafal Sonik was awarded a five-minute time penalty after stage one by race officials for having a missing time card and he slipped behind Mohammed Abu Issa and Adel Hussein in the quad rankings. Car drivers Holowczyc and Al-Rajhi were handed one-minute time penalties for minor speeding violations.
The special started to the far south-west of Doha and headed north through the desert along the western coast, before turning south, passing under the Salwa road, and then east across the south of the country to a finish 4.85km from the Sealine bivouac.
Sunderland was in fine form early on and was 55sec quicker than nearest rival Rodrigues to PC1 and Abu Issa had extended his virtual lead over Sonik by 2min 11sec in the quad category. Al-Attiyah continued to edge clear of his rivals and was 40sec quicker than Al-Rajhi to the checkpoint.
Sunderland continued to edge clear of the pack in virtual terms at PC2 and PC3. The Briton was comfortably quicker than Paolo Goncalves, as the tail-enders in the leading group continued to close in on the front-runners. By PC3 and PC4, Barreda, Coma, Goncalves, Viladoms and Sunderland were riding close together and Al-Attiyah extended his advantage over Al-Rajhi to 6min 29sec in the car category.
Sunderland held on to take the stage win and reduce some of the damage his navigational problems had caused on Monday, but it was Faria’s turn to lose his way on the second stage and the Portuguese plummeted out of contention for the win after taking a wrong track early on. He finished the stage before any other rider, but could look forward to over 25hrs of time penalties at the bivouac.
“I lost the way very early and came back into the stage to reach the finish, but it’s over now for me with all the waypoints I missed,” admitted the Portuguese.
Al-Attiyah reached the stage finish 11min 15sec in front of his nearest rival in the car category to record a second stage win from Pole Martin Kaczmarski. Al-Rajhi lost time between PC2 and PC3 with navigational errors and finished the stage in third, but moved up to second overall.
Tomorrow (Wednesday), competitors will tackle the longest stage of the entire event – a torturous 411.76km loop stage through southern Qatar – with the first bike reaching the start at 05.45hrs.
2014 Sealine Cross-Country Rally – positions on SS2 (396.46km) – unofficial @ 13.45hrs:
Cars
1. Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah (QAT)/Matthieu Baumel (FRA) Mini All4 Racing
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3hr 43min 21sec
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2. Martin Kaczmarski (POL)/Filipe Palmeiro (PRT) Mini All4 Racing
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3hr 54min 36sec
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3. Yazeed Al-Rajhi (SAU)/Timo Gottschalk (GER) Toyota Hilux
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3hr 55min 16sec
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4. Vladimir Vasilyev (RUS)/Konstantin Zhiltsov (RUS) Mini All4 Racing
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4hr 04min 22sec
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5. Marek Dabrowski (POL)/Jacek Czachor (POL) Toyota Hilux
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4hr 07min 57sec
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6. Adam Malysz (POL)/Rafal Marton (POL) Toyota Hilux
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4hr 12min 55sec
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7. Reinaldo Varela (BRA)/Gustavo Gugelmin (BRA) Toyota Hilux
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4hr 18min 24sec
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8. Krzysztof Holowczyc (POL)/Andreas Schulz (GER) Mini All4 Racing
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4hr 24min 29sec
|
Bikes
1. Sam Sunderland (GBR) KTM 450
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4hr 22min 22sec
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2. Paolo Goncalves (PRT) Honda CRF 450
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4hr 24min 26sec
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3. Jordi Viladoms (ESP) KTM 450
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4hr 30min 29sec
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4. Helder Rodrigues (PRT) Honda CRF 450
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4hr 30min 52sec
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5. Marc Coma (ESP) KTM 450
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4hr 32min 25sec
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6. Joan Barreda (ESP) Honda CRF
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450 4hr 34min 23sec
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7. Mohammed Al-Balooshi (ARE) KTM 450
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5hr 04min 36sec
|
Quads
9. Mohammed Abu Issa (QAT) Honda TRX 680
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5hr 23min 08sec
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10. Rafal Sonik (POL) Honda TRX 700
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5hr 25min 07sec
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2014 Sealine Cross-Country Rally – overall positions after SS2 – unofficial @ 13.45hrs:
Cars
1. Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah (QAT)/Matthieu Baumel (FRA) Mini All4 Racing
|
5hr 13min 18sec
|
2. Yazeed Al-Rajhi (SAU)/Timo Gottschalk (GER) Toyota Hilux
|
5hr 37min 47sec
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3. Vladimir Vasilyev (RUS)/Konstantin Zhiltsov (RUS) Mini All4 Racing
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5hr 43min 43sec
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4. Adam Malysz (POL)/Rafal Marton (POL) Toyota Hilux
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5hr 54min 36sec
|
5. Krzysztof Holowczyc (POL)/Andreas Schulz (GER) Mini All4 Racing
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5hr 58min 10sec
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6. Martin Kaczmarski (POL)/Filipe Palmeiro (PRT) Mini All4 Racing
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6hr 00min 19sec
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7. Marek Dabrowski (POL)/Jacek Czachor (POL) Toyota Hilux
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6hr 03min 47sec
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8. Miroslav Zapletal (CZE)/Maciej Marton (POL) Hummer H3
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6hr 30min 14sec
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9. Andrey Cherednikov (KAZ)/Dmitro Tsyro (KAZ) Toyota
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6hr 31min 09sec
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10. Reinaldo Varela (BRA)/Gustavo Gugelmin (BRA) Toyota Hilux
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6hr 33min 30sec
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Bikes
1. Marc Coma (ESP) KTM 450
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6hr 15min 58sec
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2. Joan Barreda (ESP) Honda CRF 450
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6hr 16min 54sec
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3. Jordi Viladoms (ESP) KTM 450
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6hr 18min 04sec
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4. Paolo Goncalves (PRT) Honda CRF 450
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6hr 18min 27sec
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5. Sam Sunderland (GBR) KTM 450
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6hr 21min 56sec
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6. Helder Rodrigues (PRT) Honda CRF 450
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6hr 22min 17sec
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7. Mohammed Al-Balooshi (ARE) KTM 450
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6hr 54min 10sec
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Quads
8. Mohammed Abu Issa (QAT) Honda TRX 680
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7hr 38min 58sec
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9. Rafal Sonik (POL) Honda TRX 700
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7hr 43min 55sec
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via Sealine Cross Country Rally
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