The Peninsula
Qatar’s Nasser Saleh Al Attiyah’s winning run at the Rally of Morocco came to an end in the fourth stage Morocco yesterday but the rally ace held the overall lead at the fourth round of the 2021 World Cup for Cross Country Rallies.
Al Attiyah and his French co-driver Mathieu Baumel finished second behind Saudi Arabia’s Yazeed Al Rajhi in 367km special stage.
With just one stage remaining today, Al Attiyah holds an 11-minute 21-second lead over Al Rajhi.
Baumel said: “We didn’t want to open on the last day so this morning we started off gently. And then we made a small navigation error that cost us a minute or two. At 224 km we were able to work out the times and saw that Yazeed had pulled back almost 5 minutes and Kuba 2 so over the last part of the special we decided to up the pace a little. All in all perfect for tomorrow. The plan will be to come up to Yazeed’s dust and stay behind him.”
Al Rajhi was happy to win the stage without any major issues during the 367 kilometre stage.
“Sure very happy. We win today’s stage. Lucky day for us, not any punctures not any problem and also Michael did a great job. When the car works well and everything work well we can win stages. We have the speed and we have the experience. Just need some luck,” the Saudi driver said.