Nasser Al-Attiyah and his co-driver Mathieu Baumel have achieved victory in the Baja Qatar at the controls of the Toyota GR DKR Hilux T1+. Despite the fact that the last stage of the rally had to be canceled due to a strong sandstorm, the local hero had already secured victory at that time after amass a 3 minute 53 second lead over Yazeed Al-Rajhi, also at the controls the Saudi of a Toyota Hilux. For its part, Yasir Seaidan has completed the Baja Qatar podium and the Toyota treble.
Although Nasser Al-Attiyah was not initially scheduled to compete in Baja Qatar, the cancellation of the Rally of Kazakhstan of the FIA World Rally-Raid Championship opened the possibility for Nasser to compete at home in order to continue with the tests, analysis and development of the Toyota GR DKR Hilux T1+. By the way, Nasser has achieved an almost perfect victory after winning the short qualifying section of 9.2 kilometers and winning the two sections of the first stage of more than 120 kilometers each.
At the end of the first stage and ultimately due to the cancellation of the second day of Baja Qatar, Nasser Al-Attiyah had surpassed Yazeed Al-Rajhi in almost four minutes, an advantage based not only on Nasser’s pace, but on Baumel’s perfect navigation. In fact, hea Baja Qatar is one of the most complex tests in terms of navigation, something that Dani Sordo was able to suffer in his own flesh. The Spaniard, in his debut in the specialty at the controls of a T3, finished thirteenth, eighth among vehicles in the same category.
A T3 category in which the final victory went to Kris Meeke, partner of Dani Sordo in the Baja Qatar within the Nasser Racing team, a structure created by Al-Attiyah himself. With a more than accurate piloting and the navigation work of François Cazalet, one of the best co-drivers in the specialty, the British driver scored an ‘easy’ win over Ahmed Fahad Alkuwari. For his part, the podium was completed by Khalid Al-Muhannadi with a Can-Am that initially appeared registered as T4.
T4 class in which the victory also went to Nasser Racing, closing the particular triplet of triumphs with the absolute victory of Al-Attiyah and the success of Meeke in T3. Although in this case the competition was quite small, Khalifa Al-Attiyah, Nasser’s brother, prevailed with a certain smugness over Saadon Al-Kuwari and Camelia Liparoti. On the other hand, it should be noted that Konrad Dabrowski has been the winner in the motorcycle category after beating Mohammed Al-Balooshi and Maki Rees-Stavros.
Photos: Toyota Gazoo Racing/Qatar Baja