Nasser Al-Attiyah (Toyota Hilux Overdrive), the man who has reached two victories in Dakar Rally, took the first place in ORLEN Baja Poland for the second time in a row.
The driver from Qatar, due to this success, is near to the triumph in the overall classification of the FIA World Cup for Cross Country Rallies. After the success in Szczecin, he has to gain only 9 more points in the next rallies to seal the trophy.
Jakub Przygoński (Mini John Cooper Works Rally), the runner-up of the series, stood on the second place of the podium. He managed to win the last but one stage of the rally as well. Owing to this result, ORLEN Team’s driver has strengthened his second place in The FIA World Cup for Cross-country Rallies.
Przygoński tried to attack Al-Attiyah on the first Sunday stage but the puncture that he had on the next stage brought the loss of more than a minute and a half to the leader.
The podium is filled by Bernhard Ten Brinke who is co-driven by a competitor well-known from the FIA World Rally Championship, Stephane Prevot (Toyota Hilux Overdrive). Vladimir Vasilev (Mini John Cooper Works Rally), 2014 World Cup winner, took the fourth place, close behind the Dutch-Belgian duo.
Aron Domżała finished ORLEN Baja Poland on the fifth place (Toyota Hilux Overdrive). The driver (partnered by Szymon Gospodarczyk) and Krzysztof Hołowczyc scored the same time at the last stage. That is really unusual in cross country rallies.
Miroslav Zapletal, co-driven by Bartosz Momot (Ford F150 Evo), reached the finish behind Domżała and Gospodarczyk. Nicholas Fuchs (HRX Ford), known from the starts in WRC 2, nailed the seventh place. He won both runs of the stage Lubieszyn.
Peter Van Mekrsteijn, the Dutch driver (Toyota Hilux Overdrive), occupied eight place. Adel Hussein Abdull (Nissan Patrol Y62) and Adam Piec (Toyota Land Cruiser) took the ninth and tenth place respectively. These drivers also were on the first two places in T2 class.
Baja Poland was the fifth round of Polish Cross-country Championship as well. In this series, Jakub Przygoński was the winner of the event. The podium was filled by Bernard Ten Brinke and Vladimir Vasilev.
ORLEN Team’s driver won also the FIA Central European Zone Championship for Cross Country Rallies. Aron Domżała took the second place and Miroslav Zapletal was placed on the third step of the podium.
Motorcyclists’ competition was dominated by ORLEN Team’s riders. They covered the whole podium. Adam Tomiczek was the winner. He won only by 7 seconds on Maciek Giemza. Kuba Piątek stepped the last place of the podium.
FIA World Cup for Cross Country Rallies (classification afeter 9 rounds)
1. Nasser Al-Attiyah (QAT) 240
2. Jakub Przygoński (POL) 159
3. Khalid Al-Qassimi (ZEA) 105
4. Aron Domżała (POL) 96
5. Yasir Seaidan (SAU) 96
6. Mohammed Abu Issa (QAT) 84
7. Martin Prokop (CZE) 72
8. Miroslav Zapletal (CZE) 55
9. Leeroy Poulter (ZAF) 42
10. Adel Hussein Abdulla (QAT) 41