The Republic of Karelia is hosting the Baja “Russia – Northern Forest” – the second day of the FIA World Cup for Cross-Country Rallies first round ended up with domination of Nasser Al-Attiyah on the track. Qatari driver feels confident on Karelian snow roads, although his advantage over the Czech crew is only four minutes.

Special stages laid near the Russian-Finnish border are extremely dynamic and speedy, almost every driver spoke about the track very enthusiastically. A good mood is supported by clear sunny weather, frost and absence of falling snow.

On Saturday, the drivers had to pass two special stages of 104 and 170 kilometers. The first section of the day was rather boring – almost everyone finished it without any accidents, trying to be careful and adjusting to high-speed driving on a slippery surface, except for a couple of crews. Denis Krotov in his BMW X3 had a crash of wheel end bearing, and Boris Gadasin had to return to the service with a bunch of problems.

Al-Attiyah was the fastest, and Tapio Lauronen secured the second position. These tracks are almost native for him – Lauronen lives only a few dozen kilometers from the area of the rally, though on the other side of the border, but often visits these places.

Martin Prokop from the Czech Republic rounded out the top three after 104-km special stage, but his advantage over Vladimir Vasilyev, located on the fourth position, was not great – just two minutes. There was also a close fight in the Production category – Alexey Titov in his Ford Raptor disengaged from the Qatari crew in the Toyota LC200 for only 27 seconds. And the leadership in the T3 category was strengthened by Claude Fornier.

After a short break the vehicles moved to a second, more extensive, special stage. Confidence after the first half of the day has already grown and the drivers have become more courageous. The number of mistakes immediately increased. Tapio Lauronen lost his second position due to the flat wheel; the Argentinian crew of Fernando Alvarez was too fast and “sat” on the parapet. However, guys managed to escape from the snow captivity quite quickly.

But the last year’s winner of the Baja “Russia – Northern Forest” – Polish driver Aron Domzala was unlucky. He rolled his car over twice. After the first accident Yasir Saiedan from Saudi Arabia came to his aid and returned the crew to the road, and the second time Martin Prokop was engaged in rescue activities. The time spent on it was compensated.

T3 category saw the leader’s change: was replaced – Frenchman Claude Fornier was overtaken by Dmitry Ponomarenko in the same vehicle – Polaris RZR 1000.

Tomorrow is the final day of the Baja “Russia – Northern Forest” and the crews will again find two special stages with a total distance of 228 kilometers.

Marc Coma, the Dakar Sporting Director, has decided to leave his position with the biggest rally-raid in the world in order to fully devote himself to personal projects.

Coma has spent as a member of the organisation team. Indeed, and has poured all his elite-level energy and skills into servicing the Dakar, working hand-in-hand with all the members of the organisation team and passing on his wealth of experience to his colleagues.

“After having competed in the Dakar and won it five times, I’ve been lucky enough to discover what it’s like on the other side of the fence and the amazing organisational machine that runs this outstanding event." Said Coma

"Being in the heart of the rally for three years, in contact with specialists fully devoted to their task, has taught me much about the professionalism and commitment of the organisational teams that work on an event that is unique throughout the world."

"I hope that the Dakar continues to be the subject of excitement and dreams for many a year to come”. Concluded the Spaniard

Overdrive Racing will run three Toyota Hiluxes at the Baja Russia Northern Forest Rally, the opening round of the 2018 FIA World Cup for Cross-Country Rallies, and each of the three drivers have very different objectives at the only snow and ice round of the series. The event takes place on February 16-18.

Qatar’s Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah clinched his fourth FIA World Cup title in Morocco last October before going on to finish second in the recent Dakar Rally. The Moroccan success was the second successive series triumph for Overdrive Racing and Toyota and came after Al-Attiyah and French navigator Matthieu Baumel won seven of the 11 rounds of the championship.

After driving the very latest specification Toyota Gazoo Racing South Africa Team Hilux in South America last month, Al-Attiyah reverts to a 2017-specification Toyota for his challenge for honours in the snowy wastelands of Karelia in north-western Russia this weekend.

He will be aiming to win the FIA World Cup for a fifth time and give Overdrive Racing a hat-trick of series titles with a car entered under a new Tamim Al-Majid Team banner. The Qatari will also be hoping to win this event for the first time.

Poland’s Aron Domzala and navigator Szymon Gospodarczyk claimed their one and only FIA World Cup win at the Russian event last February with Overdrive Racing. Domzala endured mixed fortunes for the rest of his campaign, after leading the series outright heading to the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge in April.

He went on to finish third in the Drivers’ Championship behind Al-Attiyah and Polish rival Jakub Przygonski and will be aiming to move up at least one step on the podium in 2018. Maciej Marton navigated for Domzala for much of 2017 and he returns to action in Karelia.

The talented Saudi Arabian driver Yasir Saiedan crews the third Overdrive Racing Toyota Hilux. He joins the team for the first time after being crowned the FIA T2 World Champion with his privately-run Toyota Land Cruiser in 2017.

Saiedan was the runaway winner of the prestigious category for series production cross-country vehicles last year, but the powerful V8-engined Hilux marks a major step up in performance for him and Russian navigator Alexei Kuzmich.

Overdrive Racing’s CEO Jean-Marc Fortin said: “It’s always exciting to start a new FIA World Cup campaign and this event comes just three weeks or so after our successful Dakar Rally, where Toyotas filled two places on the podium and we also had two customer cars inside the top 10.

“We’ve made a strong start to the season and we need to keep that momentum going in Russia, where we will see a massive change in weather conditions from the 35-plus degrees we faced on many days in Dakar to temperatures that could be as low as -20°C on the stages in Karelia.”

The start of this year’s event will take place in the Ruskeala Mountain Park, located on the highway linking Russia with Finland. Pre-Baja formalities will be held in the small town of Sortavala and precede the 17km Prologue stage on Friday (February 16).

Crews will then face two days of competition (Saturday and Sunday, February 17-18) and four selective sections on snowy trails and forest tracks in the Suojarvi and Sortvala districts of the Republic of Karelia. The ceremonial finish will take place in the village of Vyartsilya on Sunday afternoon.

he victories achieved by Kevin Benavides in the bike race, Ignacio Casale in the quad category, Giniel de Villiers in the car race and Ton van Genugten in the truck category did not affect the positions at the top of the rally’s hierarchy.

Matthias Walkner became the first Austrian winner on a bike, with Austrian brand KTM continuing to dominate the event thanks to a 17th consecutive success. For its last participation, Peugeot also retained the title, but this time only one of their cars was on the podium, namely the 3008 Maxi driven by winner Carlos Sainz.

Under threat until the day before the finish from Federico Villagra, in the end Eduard Nikolaev obtained a third title behind the wheel of his Kamaz. As for Chilean Ignacio Casale, to win his 2nd Dakar he dominated the general standings from start to finish.

In total, 191 vehicles completed the 40th edition: 85 bikes, 32 quads, 49 cars including 6 SxS and 25 trucks, meaning 55% of the competitors that set out from Lima two weeks ago reached the finish.

More open than ever before, the bike race soon produced its first surprise with the premature exit from the rally of Sam Sunderland in the dunes of San Juan de Marcona on only day 4 of the rally.

The title holder and winner of 2 out of the first 3 stages left the field clear for a hungry chasing pack led by the new guard represented by Adrien van Beveren and Kevin Benavides. The two men challenged the usual domination of KTM, exchanging the lead in the general standings on several occasions.

This battle was interspersed with exploits from Joan Barreda or Antoine Meo, before an intense and devastating tenth stage. A day which should have allowed the young Argentinean to triumph in his home country instead put an end to his hopes due to a terrible navigational error in the river beds of Belén towards the end of the special. He dragged a good number of the favourites down with him, including Toby Price, with Matthias Walkner and Van Beveren the only leading riders to come out unscathed. However, the Yamaha rider did not remain unharmed due to a terrible fall 3 km from the finish, which put the Austrian in sole command of the Dakar.

Controlling the race perfectly up to the end of the event, at the age of 31 years the Austrian has grabbed the biggest prize of his career, allowing KTM to continue an incredible sequence of 17 consecutive triumphs…

The day after his first stage victory and the 10th of his career on the Dakar, Sébastien Loeb was forced to exit the race, undone by the Tanaka Desert’s dunes! It was not the first or last dramatic turn of events in this unpredictable and untameable Dakar: Nani Roma rolled out of the rally early, on the loop around Pisco, whilst Stéphane Peterhansel lost the lead of the rally following an accident on the marathon stage at Uyuni.

Even a dunes specialist like Nasser Al Attiyah got stuck in the sand around San Juan de Marcona and lost more than one hour after just four days of racing! In the midst of this carnage, Carlos Sainz put in a faultless performance which nobody had been expecting from him.

“El Matador” was precise in his attacks, reeled in the lead and then controlled the race with assurance behind the wheel of his 3008 Maxi. In Córdoba, he climbed onto the top step of the podium that is strikingly similar to that of 2010, when the Spaniard also beat Al Attiyah (by just 2 minutes). Giniel de Villiers finished in the top 3 for the 8th time in 15 participations, while Stéphane Peterhansel missed out, after slipping off the podium the day before the finish.

With three consecutive victories on the first three stages, Ignacio Casale spread panic among his rivals in the quad category.

Sergey Karyakin, the distanced title holder, exited the rally injured, just like Rafal Sonik, the winner in 2015. In imperial form in the dunes, the Chilean was also able to boss the rest of the pack, whilst allowing leeway for expression on their home terrain to two young Argentineans who represent the future of the discipline: Nicolas Cavigliasso, 26 years old, and Jeremias González Ferioli, 22. The three men made up the final podium in this order.

Eduard Nikolaev started his eighth Dakar at one hell of a pace. Thanks to imperial performances in the Peruvian dunes, the 2017 champion soon opened up big gaps over all his rivals, except for the tenacious Federico Villagra.

The Argentinean was the only driver able to take the battle to the Kamaz clan leader and had to grin and bear it during the first week, before putting the Russian under pressure as well as taking the general standings lead from him. However, a gearbox problem put paid to the Iveco driver’s hopes as he exited the race the day before the finish.

This let Nikolaev triumph for the 3rd time on the Dakar. The runner-up, Siarhei Viazovich, finished the rally more than 4 hours behind him...

For the second year of the SxS category, Reinaldo Varela displayed superb consistency at the forefront of the category, with 5 stage victories enabling him to occupy the top step on the podium. The Brazilian was involved in a fierce battle with Frenchman Patrice Garrouste, who also picked up 5 stage wins.