Qatar’s Al-Attiyah and Abu Issa retain leads and spain’s coma tops the bikes in Sealine Rally
- Stage four wins for Al-Attiyah, Goncalves and Sonik
- Sunderland falls and sustains wrist injury; navigation takes its toll
- Final 362.97km selective section awaits in Qatar desert on Friday
Al-Attiyah and French co-driver Matthieu Baumel turned an overnight lead of 39min 38sec into an advantage of 1hr 05min 11sec over Polish Toyota Hilux driver Adam Malysz with one stage remaining in the fourth round of the FIA World Cup for Cross-Country Rallies.
“I am quite happy,” said Al-Attiyah. “I had no reason to push today. It is very easy to make a mistake here. Matthieu has been excellent all week. No problems with the car and we just have to do the same again one more time. This rally is now at a high level. The navigation is probably the most difficult of them all.”
Poland’s Krzysztof Holowczyc lost his chance of taking a top finish with overheating issues on Wednesday, but the Mini driver stormed back with a useful performance on day four. He was leading the stage all the way to PC5 before losing time with navigational issues. “This rally is very different,” said the Pole. “This is a co-driver’s rally. This is not for the driver. You push like hell for hours and then one mistake and it’s back to square one again.”
Toyota’s Marek Dabrowski claimed second position on the day and Overdrive team-mate Malysz took advantage of Vladimir Vasilyev’s lengthy navigational delays to snatch second overall by just 5min 20sec.
The dogfight between Honda and KTM continued into day four; overnight leader Joan Barreda, riding a Honda CRF 450, ceded the overall advantage to KTM’s Marc Coma for the second time in four days, although the stage win fell to Honda’s Paolo Goncalves.
The two leading Spaniards will now go head-to-head on Friday, with Barreda having the sizeable advantage of following the four-time Dakar winner and defending Sealine champion through the stage. Coma has a lead of 41 seconds and starts two minutes ahead of his rival.
“I know it’s going to be difficult now,” said Coma. “It was a very hard day with a very high level of navigation. I lost my rhythm a little towards the end and I now have to give it a go tomorrow. That’s all I can do.”
Goncalves was delighted with the stage win. “I have been recovering time since the first day and it was good to get back a lot of that time against my rivals today. It was a difficult and demanding stage. Tomorrow is the last day and I will need to concentrate and not make a navigation mistake. I have a chance still. You never know.”
Barreda admits that he needs to remain focused. “The strategy is working well. Now I need to keep my concentration and not make any navigational error. I will need to push and catch Marc and stay with him. That is the plan.”
After his navigational woes on Wednesday, Poland’s Rafal Sonik caught Abu Issa, the pair rode together and the Pole managed to win the quad stage by 5min 07sec. Qatar’s Mohammed Abu Issa takes a comfortable unofficial advantage of 29min 14sec into the final selective section on Friday and, barring a late disaster, should snatch the Sealine title from the defending champion.
