(MENAFN- The Peninsula)
TERUEL, SPAIN: Overdrive Racing’s Nasser Saleh Al Attiyah and Matthieu Baumel returned to cross-country rallying action for the first time since the Andalucia Rally in mid-May and snatched a late victory in the three-stage Baja Spain Aragon, round five of the FIA World Cup for Cross-Country Bajas, yesterday.
Leading by 64 seconds heading into the final stage, Al Attiyah lost time to French driver Sebastien Loeb during the early kilometres of the selective section and looked to be heading for second place until his rival dropped around 14 minutes near the finish with power steering issues and slipped to seventh overall.
“It was a difficult last stage for everybody but I am quite happy to win this race,” said Al Attiyah, who suffered tyre wear on the abrasive surfaces in the high temperatures and duly recorded his fourth Spanish Baja success (2008, 2016 and 2017) and his third with Toyota.
“Today everybody had problems. It was not easy at all. The last 40km we had serious tyre wear issues.”
The Belgian Overdrive team ran four Toyota Hiluxes in the punishing summer heat of the Aragon region of Spain for Al Attiyah, Saudi Arabia’s Yazeed Al Rajhi, Dutchman Erik van Loon and Portugal’s Tiago Reis, with another customer car for Spaniard Isidre Esteve.
Al Rajhi and Michael Orr had rekindled their working partnership on the early stages of the Silk Way Rally at the start of the month before the team withdrew from the shortened event.
That decision enabled Orr to give a back injury more time to heal and the Ulsterman guided the Saudi to third overall and the final podium slot at the finish of the Spanish event in Teruel. The points’ haul also lifted Al-Rajhi closer to Baja series leader Yasir Seaidan in the title race.
The Portuguese duo of Tiago Reis and Valter Cardosa crewed a fourth Overdrive Toyota. They earned fourth and fifth quickest times on the last two stages on the way to an excellent fourth place.
Erik Van Loon began the Baja in sixth place in the FIA World Cup for Cross-Country Bajas Drivers’ Championship and he and French co-driver Sébastien Delaunay reached the finish in a similar position to boost the Dutchman’s points tally behind points’ leader Seaidan.
Former Dakar motorcyclist Isidre Esteve teamed up with Txema Villalobos to drive a customer Overdrive Hilux. He reached the finish in ninth position. Portugal’s Joäo Ferreira also drove an Overdrive-built Hilux and finished 11th with co-driver David Monteiro.
Nine-time World Rally Champion Sébastien Loeb pipped Al Attiyah by a mere one second to the fastest time on the opening selective section of 180km on Friday after carding the fastest time of 2hr 20min 12sec.
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