pharaons rally ; Al Rajhi, Toia e Sonik at the top in the third stage

TIBNIYA – Pyramids are getting increasingly closer, with the third stage of 2015 Pharaons Rally that has passed the turning point with a varied day as usual with many kind of terrains. A wide loop of 346 kilometres, 319 of which of selective section, that has seen the victory of Yazeed Al Rajhi among the cars, Diocleziano Toia among the bikes and Rafal Sonik in the quad category.

Being fifth at the start this morning and exploiting this at his best, Yazeed Al Rajhi (Toyota) has doubled the success of the first stage again in front of Nasser Al Attiyah (Mini), who is definitely registered in second position. The gap between the two is 1’28’’ that becomes 3’38’’ for Erik Van Loon (Mini), finally actor of high level stage. Only fourth is the winner of yesterday, the Russian Vladimir Vasilyev (Mini), anyway only four minutes behind from the winner. Emil Kneisser (Nissan) has been winner of the T2, while the Polaris of Jean-Paul Van Bomen has settled everyone right in T3.

In the general classification Nasser Al Attiyah is still on top, with an advantage fallen to 2’16’’ over Yazeed Al Rajhi, while Vladimir Vasilyev is detached by 5’47’’.

Among the bikes victory would have gone to the Italian Diocleziano Toia (KTM), only 48’’ over the dominant of the Pharaons, the Emirates pilot Mohammed Al Balooshi (KTM). Conditional is a must, as many bike pilots have wasted time searching for a waypoint inserted in their GPS with wrong data. Decisions will be taken by the international jury. Third place has gone to Rafal Sonik (Yamaha), probable winner – obviously among quads, while we find the Polish Jakub Piatek (KTM) at the fourth place preceding Juan Carlos Salvatierra (KTM).

The general classification – also unofficial – sees on top always Al Balooshi with 6’39’’ over Piatek and 9’11’’ over Salvatierra. Sonik is absolute fourth, leading the quad classification with four minutes and half over Mohammed Abu Issa.

Tomorrow the fourth stage of the Pharaons that will get back among the cathedral dunes of Sitra with a stage of 457 kilometres, of which 343 are selective section.

Yazeed Al Rajhi (SAU – Toyota): “We had two “big” moments during the stage, landing on the nose of the car. I had a little bit of sore neck. 100 km before the finish we got a puncture but we were able to win the stage. When we arrived to the finish we realized that we overtook Malysz, but we didn’t see him.”

Nasser Al Attiyah (QAT-MINI): “After 80 km we overtook Vasilyev and we opened the track, but it was not easy, even if I remembered it because it had been last year stage. 10 km before the finish line, while passing some sand hills, we got stuck for two minutes… So three second positions and we are still leading in the overall.”

Erik Van Loon (NLD – Mini) “The first perfect day, finally! We spent two days to set up the car and today everything worked well. The stage was hard not only for the car but for the body too, because of the stones, but we used the soft suspension and it was a good decision. Finally we are back on track!”

Vladimir Vasilyev: (RUS – Mini): “It’s a fact that if you open the track you loose time and this is what happened today. In the three days or us or Nasser were in front, we are fighting against each other every single day and that is very exciting. We have a good starting position tomorrow.”

Rafal Sonik: (POL – Yamaha): “It was a particular day, someway good, someway bad, like a picture of the life. In my quad I use the bib-mousse, to avoid punctures, but with the heat the tyres became too hard and in the rocky sections it my quad was very difficult to drive. Than I played my joker with a two meters high jump, because I was in the dust and I went straight to a turn. Fortunately where I landed it was soft and I didn’t crash, it it was rocky I would have destroyed my quad.”

Mohammed Al Balooshi: (ARE – KTM): “Today I learned a lot from Nasser. With his great experience, when he made a mistake he remained calm and found the good way soon. I did a good stage and I’m happy: when you see that you are right in navigation and you get the result it’s extremely satisfying.”

Kuba Piatek (POL – KTM): “At 40 km I was leading opening the track, after Salvatierra’s mistake. The speed was not so high but I’m happy because here in Egypt I’m improving a lot my navigation skills.”

AUTO 

1	1	1	302	NASSER SALEH AL ATTIYAH	AL-ATTIYAH NASSER BAUMEL MATHIEU	QAT FRA	FIA	MINI ALL4 RACING	T1	2			0	08:09:51
2	2	1	308	YAZEED RACING	AL-RAJHI YAZEED GOTTSCHALK TIMO	SAU DEU	FIA	TOYOTA HILUX OVERDRIVE	T1	1			0	08:12:07
3	3	2	301	G-ENERGY TEAM	VASILYEV VLADIMIR ZHILTSOV KONSTANTIN	RUS RUS	FIA	MINI ALL4 RACING	T1	2			0	08:15:38
4	4	3	307	ORLEN TEAM	MALYSZ ADAM PANSERI XAVIER	POL FRA	FIA	MINI ALL4 RACING	T1	2			0	08:24:16
5	5	2	304	OVERDRIVE RACING	VARELA REINALDO GUGELMIN GUSTAVO	BRA BRA	FIA	TOYOTA HILUX OVERDRIVE	T1	1			0	08:26:30
6	6	3	305	ORLEN TEAM	DABROWSKI MAREK CZACHOR JACEK	POL POL	FIA	TOYOTA HILUX OVERDRIVE	T1	1			0	08:33:55
7	7	4	306	ZAPLETAL MIROSLAV	ZAPLETAL MIROSLAV MARTON MACIEJ	CZE POL	FIA	H3 EVO VII	T1	1			0	08:47:30
8	8	4	303	X-RAID TEAM	VAN LOON ERIK ROSEGAAR WOUTER	NLD NLD	FIA	MINI ALL4 RACING	T1	2			0	08:47:47
9	9	5	310	MOBILEX RACING TEAM	SAZONOV YURIY SAKHIMOV ARSLAN	KAZ KAZ		HUMMER H3 EVO	T1	1			0	09:16:56
10	10	6	319	OPEL DAKAR TEAM	SZALAY BALAZS LAKLOTH ALADAR	HUN HUN		OPEL MOKKA	T1	1			0	10:06:12
11	11	7	312	MOBILEX RACING TEAM	SHAGIROV KANAT MOROZ ALEXANDR	KAZ KAZ		TOYOTA HILUX	T1	1			30:00	10:50:43
12	1	1	315	AL ADAM RALLY TEAM	AL THANI SHK HAMAD EID ALLOWH FERAS	QAT JOR		NISSAN PATROL	T2	1			0	12:13:59
13	1	1	311	ERIC MOZAS	MOZAS ERIC DELAUNAY SEBASTIEN	FRA FRA		POLARIS RZR 1000	T3	2			0	12:14:23

MOTOS / QUAD

1	1	7	BALOOSHI MOHAMMED	ARE	KTM UAE	KTM RALLY BIKE 450	450	0	10:48:57
2	2	11	PIATEK JAKUB	POL	ORLEN TEAM	KTM BIKE	450	0	10:55:36
3	3	10	SALVATIERRA JUAN CARLOS	BOL	KTM WARSAW RALLY TEAM	KTM RALLY REPLICA 450	450	0	10:58:08
4	1	100	SONIK RAFAL	POL	SONIK TEAM	YAMAHA RAPTOR 700	QUAD	0	11:47:21
5	2	102	ABU-ISSA MOHAMMED	QAT	ABUISSA RACING	HONDA TRX 680	QUAD	12:00	11:51:58
6	4	69	TOIA DIOCLEZIANO	ITA	CROSS PARTS	KTM 450 RALLY	450	29:00	11:54:52
7	5	14	GAGGIANI ANDREA	ITA	FZ FACTORY	KTM RALLY REPLICA 450	450	0	12:03:32
8	6	13	NIFONTOVA ANASTASIYA	RUS	VEB RACING	HUSQVARNA 450FE	450	0	12:57:58
9	1	151	CHIUSSI STEFANO	ITA	FZ FACTORY	HUSQVARNA FE501	OPEN	20:00	13:30:17
10	2	153	LECIS ALVIS	LVA		KTM 500 EXC	OPEN	0	13:55:40

Al Rajhi, Salvatierra and Sonik are the new Pharaons

After an intense week made of desert, high temperatures and hard tracks, the arrival to the Giza pyramids is really a moment of relief for the Pharaons Rally 2014 survivors. Emotions, some tears of joy, many souvenir photos with the fantastic Pyramids on the background.

No particular surprises has shaken the general ranking, so Yazeed Al Rajhi, Juan Carlos Salvatierra and Rafal Sonik were crowned as new pharaons, in car, bike and quad categories. Nasser Al Attiyah tried in every way to attack Saudi, he overtook him at km 50, but Yazeed had only to control by distance Qatar pilot dust, and lost only three minutes on track.

Surprise among cars arrived thanks to third podium position that until yesterday was firmly occupied by Polish Marek Dabrowski. Ex motorbike pilot broke his Toyota rear drive shaft reaching the final line with three hours delay and obviously lost the desired result, getting then seventh position. Third position went to Dutch Erik Van Loon/Wouter Rosegaar Mini, that arrived before World Cup leader Vladimir Vasilyev.

Adham Mostafa/ Hakam Rabie were the best Egyptian team reaching the finish line.

Few surprises even in bike category, where Juan Carlos Salvatierra won today the last stage of a rally he literally dominated. Nicolas Cardona, fourth in today stage, arrived after him with a delay of 44 minutes.

Third podium position was decided during the last Rally km even in the motorbike category. Polish Rafal Sonik succeeded in overtaking Stefano Chiussi, third until yesterday, that because of the dislocated shoulder had to keep a lower rhythm. Italian is however Over 450 category winner. Fifth position for Venezuelan Rafael Eraso, in front of Stefano Turchi and Paolo Sabbatucci.

Yazeed Al Rajhi: “It has been a great day and a really wonderful competition. My team helped me a lot, so as my copilot Timo, that made a great job. He always checks how I feel and is able to give me the right incitement. I don’t have a lot of experience in Cross Country Rally and for that reason I’m very proud for having fought against Dakar winner. It has been a week made of great satisfactions, like the one of having reached him yesterday. Today, it was hard to keep concentration, during the last 50 kilometers I was just thinking about giving gas in order to keep in view his dust. ”

Nasser Al Attiyah: “Today, it was not possible to recover eight minutes in such a fast stage. Yazeed made a good challenge. Overall, it has been a very hard competition, with different difficulties. Next year I will come back with buggy! It has been a completely new rally to me, and it reminds me about Dakars in Africa, I am really happy to be here at Pharaons! I saw the Pyramids a lot of time, but being in front of them today is really special.”

Erik Van Loon: “A very fast day, a bit dangerous sometimes, We lost some time but we saw that Dabrowski had some troubles. We had some small trouble at the beginning of the rally, but then things started to go better during the last two days. Third position was our aim.”

Juan Carlos Salvatierra: “It’s incredible to be the Pharaons winner and to think that my name is together with Coma, Despres, Barreda ones…Its the more beautiful satisfaction in my agonistic career. It has been a great experience to open the track every day. Now I’m much more confident with navigation. I’ve learned really a lot in this competition and today I’ve just tried not to make mistakes and not to fall down in order to reach these wonderful Pyramids.”

Nicolas Cardona: “I’m happy, to get the second position In a Rally like Pharaons with all its history, gives me even more incentives to go on with competitions. I’ve learned a lot during this week and I’ve tried to win until the last day, but Salvatierra’s bike is faster. In fact I would like to change mine in order to be much more competitive.”

Rafal Sonik: “A too fast stage, and quad is 20 km/h slower than bikes. I was worried about Stefano Chiussi to reach me, but it not happened. I was still looking behind me and I’ve tried to push as much as I could. Bu the end I was loosing oil from engine, so it was fine to reach the finish line. I’m happy to be here, I arrived second for two times among quads, now victory has finally arrived.”

Photos: Pep Segalés