Nasser Al-Attiyah and French navigator Matthieu Baumel began the final day with a lead of 5min 58sec over South Africa’s Leeroy Poulter and the Qatari pushed hard from the outset to extend the gap to the South African. The two Toyota Hilux drivers reached the finish in first and third overall, Poulter’s position belying the fact that he had never before competed in the Middle East and that he got stuck in the last dunes on a lump of camel grass and missed out on second.
The final stage of 343.32km started near the fort at Al-Zubara on Qatar’s north-west coast and headed down the west of the country before turning inland to finish on Sealine beach, south of Doha, with a series of dune crossings near the end. Victory on the last stage fell to Poland’s Jakub Przygonski.
“Today we tried to take care,” said Al-Attiyah. “We had a few problems, which we tried to fix and continue and then, in the last part in the dunes, we got a puncture and didn’t have the jack working. We put the car on a small hill and we changed it which took around four minutes. After that, we did good navigation and we caught everybody. It was important to win here – everybody had some small problems today but this is a good result for my championship and it’s always nice to win at home.”
Przygonski and Abu Dhabi Racing’s Sheikh Khalid Al-Qassimi battled hard for the final podium position. The Emirati began the day trailing by 1min 53sec in his Peugeot 3008 DKR and Przygonski pulled clear and eventually overhauled Poulter by 28 seconds to snatch second place, with Al-Qassimi nearly slipping behind Qatar’s Mohammed Abu Issa over the closing kilometres after losing his way. The Peugeot driver maintains his lead in the FIA World Cup championship standings, but doesn’t yet have a programme of events in place to continue the season.
Al-Qassimi said: “I was struggling. I lost around 10 minutes today, yesterday maybe five and so on. It’s just very difficult navigation here, especially when I am new in this game. You keep hoping someone will pass and you can follow. I am still learning this game. You need to know a lot of detailed, tough navigation. I got lost today. I’m not sure yet about the rest of the season. I will go away and think about it, because I also have WRC commitments.”
Saudi Arabia’s Yasir Saiedan extended his lead in the FIA T2 championship with victory in the section for series production cross-country vehicles. He and French navigator Laurent Lichtleuchter finished 1hr 13min 44sec in front of Abu Dhabi Racing’s Mansour Al-Helai, who lost time on Friday with suspension issues.
Adel Abdulla set several fastest times in his QMMF and Ooredoo-backed Nissan Patrol, but the Qatari incurred massive time penalties after a troubled second desert stage in the sand dunes, south of Sealine. Ahmed Al-Shegawi, Mohammed Al-Harqan and Ahmed Al-Malki rounded off the top five.
“We had bad luck again today and that has cost me a potential stage win,” said Adel Abdulla. “I have lost points again, but the championship still has a long way to go and we have a new cross-country rally coming up next month in Kazakhstan where I can get my challenge back on track.”
Frenchman Claude Fournier was the sole entrant in the FIA T3 section and reached the finish with navigator Loic Minaudier in a Polaris RZR 1000.
