The demanding 345.89km second selective section of the Sealine Cross-Country Rally, between Al-Khararra and Sealine, belonged to Qatar’s Nasser Saleh al-Attiyah and the Chilean duo of Jose Cornejo and Ignacio Casale Catracchia yesterday.


Ignacio Casale on his Yamaha quad.

They won their respective car, motorcycle and quad categories, as al-Attiyah and Casale Catracchia extended their outright leads and Australian Toby Price topped the motorcycle overall standings in the five-day desert round of both the FIA and FIM world championships.
Al-Attiyah and his French navigator Matthieu Baumel guided their Toyota Hilux Overdrive to a second successive stage win from the front of the field and have now established an overall lead of 7min 56sec over Saudi Arabian Yazeed al-Rajhi, driving the first of three Mini All4 Racings inside the top four. The pair were closely matched until the latter kilometres when al-Rajhi lost time with a puncture and a navigational error.
“Tomorrow we start in the dunes and we can push a little but, after what happened today, we can control the race and can push more,” said al-Attiyah. “Now the others have to catch us and they can make the mistake.”


Chilean rider Jose Cornejo was the surprise winner of second stage yesterday.

Al-Rajhi was a little deflated after losing so much time late on: “Nasser was too much lucky today. I had a puncture and the car was sliding at the back for around 40km. I followed him and I see his dust. There were some stones and, with a slow puncture, I stopped. After that, before the finish around 20km, I see all the bikes lost. Timo (Gottschalk) said stay left. We went 3km and came back 4km. It was so frustrating.”
Price had to make his way to the front of the motorcycle stage by catching Chile’s Pablo Quintanilla and Dubai-based Briton Sam Sunderland. The trio rode together for long sections of the tricky special and Price somehow reached the finish with a lead of 38 seconds over Bolivia’s Juan Carlos Salvatierra in the overall standings.
All three front-runners got lost for a long time near the finish and frantic shenanigans trying to find the correct route played into Chilean rider Jose Cornejo’s hands perfectly and he tagged on the end of the group as they found the correct route and managed to claim an unlikely stage win after major delays on Monday. Frenchman Adrien Van Beveren set the second quickest time on his factory Yamaha.
“Definitely not easy today,” said Price, who complained of a shooting back pain as he arrived in Losail. “The last 50 or so kilometres, we made a bit of a navigational error and got sidetracked. Other than that it was a decent day. We just have to regroup and look forward to tomorrow and try and minimise those mistakes.
“The error by Pablo, Sam and myself brings the others back into the race. The way it is situated, a couple of guys got in between me, Sam and Pablo, so that makes it more difficult for myself. I guess Pablo made the error, Sam followed and I was in two minds what to do. But they were on the gas and I followed. One of those things...”
Van Beveren added: “It was nice today. Yesterday I had some problem with the water and my bike stopped. It was really difficult navigation.
“We started in 11th place because of the result yesterday and it was easier for me. I took my time to avoid mistakes, but I did make some. I lost maybe 10 minutes at one point, but the other riders lose more than me.  
“I also lost time at the same place as the leaders around km 308. I’m not here to win. I am here to learn a lot to win in the future.”
Casale Catracchia extended his advantage in the quad category to 14min 19sec after Poland’s Rafal Sonik endured a troubled second day in the Qatar deserts. Vladimir Vasilyev climbed to third overall in the car category, despite three flat tyres. Mini colleague Ricardo Porém was fourth and Kazakh Yuriy Sazonov and Jutta Kleinschmidt rounded off the top six.
Local driver Adel Hussein Abdullah actually began the stage this morning second in the T2 category after the results were amended on Monday evening and Peru’s Raul Orlandini was promoted into the lead.
But, when the Peruvian hit mechanical trouble early on the second stage, the Qatari became involved in a battle for the lead with Yasir Seidan.
His Nissan Middle East-backed Patrol eventually claimed the outright lead and takes an advantage of 8min 46sec over the Saudi into day three.
Michele Cinotto stopped on the west of the route with technical issues and ceded the T3 lead to his son Pietro Cinotto in another Polaris RZR 1000s.
Today is the longest stage of the event, at 355.49km, and starts close to the former bivouac at Sealine. The route then heads south towards the Inland Sea and the Saudi Arabian border area, before revisiting the western coastline and turning inland to a finish between Umm Qarn and Abu Nakhla.

Positions on SS2 (Unofficial)
Cars
1. Nasser Saleh al-Attiyah (QAT)/Matthieu Baumel (FRA) Toyota Hilux Overdrive
(3hr 08min 36sec)
2. Yazeed al-Rajhi (SAU)/Timo Gottschalk (DEU) Mini All4 Racing (3hr 15min 48sec)
3. Vladimir Vasilyev (RUS)/Konstantin Zhiltsov (RUS) Mini All4 Racing
(3hr 31min 08sec)
4. Jutta Kleinschmidt (DEU)/Philipp Beier (DEU) X-raid CBRA (3hr 39min 29sec)
5. Yuriy Sazonov (KAZ)/Dmytro Tsyro (UKR) Hummer H3 III (3hr 40min 57sec)
6. Marek Dabrowski (POL)/Jacek Czachor (POL) Toyota Hilux Overdrive
(3hr 45min 32sec)

Bikes
1. Jose Cornejo (CHI) KTM 450 Rally
(4hr 10min 30sec)
2. Adrien Van Beveren (FRA) Yamaha WR450F (4hr 13min 02sec)
3. Juan Carlos Salvatierra (BOL) KTM 450 Replica (4hr 22min 30sec)
4. Toby Price (AUS) KTM 450 Rally
(4hr 24min 12sec)
5. Pierre Alexander Renet (FRA) Husqvarna 450 Rally (4hr 24min 34sec)

Quads
1. Ignacio Casale Catracchia (CHI) Yamaha Raptor 700 SE (4hr 32min 11sec)
2. Rafal Sonik (POL) Honda TRX 700
(4hr 46min 29sec)

Overall positions (Unofficial)
Cars
1. Nasser Saleh al-Attiyah (QAT)/Matthieu Baumel (FRA) Toyota Hilux Overdrive (5hr 09min 04sec)
2. Yazeed al-Rajhi (SAU)/Timo Gottschalk (DEU) Mini All4 Racing (5hr 17min 00sec)
3. Vladimir Vasilyev (RUS)/Konstantin Zhiltsov (RUS) Mini All4 Racing
(5hr 42min 59sec)
4. Ricardo Porém (POR)/Tom Colsoul (BEL) Mini All4 Racing (5hr 57min 40sec)
5. Yuriy Sazonov (KAZ)/Dmytro Tsyro (UKR) Hummer H3 III (6hr 00min 09sec)
6. Jutta Kleinschmidt (DEU)/Philipp Beier (DEU) X-raid CBRA (6hr 00min 53sec)
7. Marek Dabrowski (POL)/Jacek Czachor (POL) Toyota Hilux Overdrive (6hr 02min 56sec)
8. Yerdan Shagirov (KAZ)/Vitaliy Yevtyekkhov (RUS) H3 Evo V (6hr 40min 29sec)
9. Hernan Garces (CHI)/Juan Pablo Latrach (CHI) Ford Ranger (6hr 49min 17sec)
10. Mohamed al-Mannai (QAT)/Kamal Khoder (QAT) Chevrolet Buggy
(6hr 50min 09sec)
11. Adel Hussein Abdullah (QAT)/Nasser al-Kuwari (QAT) Nissan Patrol (T2)
6hr 55min 47sec
12. Yasir Seidan (SAU)/Sébastien Delaunay (FRA) Toyota Land Cruiser (T2)
7hr 04min 33sec
13. Petro Cinotto (ITA)/Mauricio Dominella (ITA) Polaris RXR 1000 (T3) 7hr 40min 42sec

Bikes
1. Toby Price (AUS) KTM 450 Rally
(6hr 51min 32sec)
2. Juan Carlos Salvatierra (BOL) KTM 450 Replica (6hr 52min 10sec)
3. Pierre Alexander Renet (FRA) Husqvarna 450 Rally (6hr 53min 26sec)
4. Sam Sunderland (GBR) KTM 450 Rally (6hr 53min 30sec)
5. Pablo Quintanilla (CHI) Husqvarna 450 Rally (6hr 55min 28sec)
6. Helder Rodrigues (POR) Yamaha WR450 (7hr 10min 39sec)

Quads
1. Ignacio Casale Catracchia (CHI) Yamaha Raptor 700 SE (7hr 36min 43sec)
2. Rafal Sonik (POL) Honda TRX 700
(7hr 51min 02sec)