Qatar’s Nasser Saleh al-Attiyah, Chile’s Ignacio Casale and a tied Sam Sunderland and Pablo Quintanilla lead their respective car, quad and motorcycle categories after the third and longest selective section of the Sealine Cross-Country Rally yesterday.


Qatar’s remarkable Mohamed al-Harqan battles on.

Al-Attiyah and Quintanilla recorded stage wins in very different circumstances. Overnight motorcycle leader Toby Price retired with a back injury before the restart and that enabled Sunderland and Quintanilla to utilise their favourable starting positions to catch their rivals and edge into a shared lead, with both riders tied to second.
Quintanilla claimed the stage win by 1min 58sec, although the nature of cross-country motorcycle racing dictates that he may give some or all of that back to his KTM rival today.
Al-Attiyah and French navigator Matthieu Baumel led from the front of the car field and progressed in a sensible manner to win the special by 40 seconds and propel their Toyota Hilux Overdrive to an outright lead of 8min 36sec over Saudi Arabia’s Yazeed al-Rajhi.
The two rivals remain in a class of their own after three days of competition and were separated by seconds throughout the entire stage, a minor navigational error near the end costing the Saudi a potential stage win. Third-placed Vladimir Vasilyev is now 53min 29sec adrift of the Qatari in his Mini All4 Racing.


Qatar’s Adel Hussein maintains his T2 lead in his Nissan Patrol.

“I lost the way a little, but we had a good run without any problems,” said al-Attiyah. “I am quite happy. This is our plan. We do same speed and we keep everyone behind. Just one slow puncture for the last 100km, but we kept on going.”
Al-Rajhi said: “We do it well until the end. Then, at a junction, we went more left and no right and that’s where he lost the time, maybe more than one minute. A lot of cap. If you follow sometimes it is not a good idea. A lot of times the cap is not there. I think we can still drive hard tomorrow. We were leading at the PC before the finish.”
Motorcycle stage winner Quintanilla said: “Today was really difficult for me. I damaged the rear wheel on a big jump near the start and drove like that until the refuel. I did not think I could make it. Then, at the refuelling, I stop and the team changed the wheel. I was lucky to finish the race. I am happy. It was good stage. We have two more days to go. For sure, it is going to be really tough.”
“In the end it seemed to be quite predictable. I arrived with Pablo together,” said Sunderland. “We are fighting for seconds. It’s becoming tricky with the other riders coming in between us. I’m just happy to stay safe. I had six months off with my broken femur. I don’t want to take too many risks, especially now that Toby has stopped, Laia is out and another rider had a crash this morning at a dangerous place. Pablo damaged his rear wheel there. It was marked as danger three in the road book at the top of the crest, but the track dropped away by three metres.”
Ignacio Casale maintained a comfortable lead over Rafal Sonik in the quad category, although the Pole stopped at the scene of a crash involving fellow Sonik Team rider Julian Villarrubia near the stage start. That time should be returned to the recent Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge winner at the evening’s FIM Jury meeting at Losail.
Behind Vasilyev, Mini colleague Ricardo Porém holds fourth overall, Kazakh Yuriy Sazonov is fifth and the experienced former Dakar winner Jutta Kleinschmidt is driving well in sixth.
Local driver Adel Hussein Abdullah began the stage with a solid advantage over Saudi’s Yasir Seaidan in the T2 category for Series Production Cross-Country Vehicles in his Nissan Middle East-supported Patrol. He ceded 4min 40sec of that hard-earned lead on the day’s stage and heads into the final two specials with an advantage of 4min 06sec
Carlo Cinotto pipped Michele Cinotto to the T3 stage win in his Polaris RZR 1000s and holds the class lead at the end of the day.
It was a fraught day for the three female QMMF-supported rookies in their T1 Nissan Patrols. Kiwi Emma Gilmour had passed PC4 at 3pm in 18th overall. French girl Charlotte Berton and Spaniard Cristina Gutierrez were progressing well after massive early delays and were 21st and 25th overall through PC3.
Today is the penultimate day of this year’s event and competitors will face the rigours of a 354.75km selective section that starts at Al-Shabana (first bike @ 07.15hrs) and finishes close to the former bivouac at Sealine. The stage initially heads north towards Al-Jamilaiya, using some of the terrain from the first day, and then cuts back across the heart of Qatar between Dukhan and Doha. The closing kilometres then venture through the dunes on the eastern side of the country to finish close to the former bivouac at Sealine.

Positions after SS3 (Unofficial)
Cars
1. Nasser Saleh al-Attiyah (QAT)/Matthieu Baumel (FRA) Toyota Hilux Overdrive
(3hr 19min 33sec)
2. Yazeed al-Rajhi (SAU)/Timo Gottschalk (DEU) Mini All4 Racing (3hr 20min 13sec)
3. Vladimir Vasilyev (RUS)/Konstantin Zhiltsov (RUS) Mini All4 Racing
(3hr 38min 07sec)
4. Ricardo Porém (POR)/Tom Colsoul (BEL) Mini All4 Racing (3hr 44min 50sec)
5. Yuriy Sazonov (KAZ)/Dmytro Tsyro (UKR) Hummer H3 III (3hr 49min 33sec)
6. Jutta Kleinschmidt (DEU)/Philipp Beier (DEU) X-raid CBRA (4hr 06min 16sec)

Bikes
1. Pablo Quintanilla (CHI) Husqvarna 450 Rally (4hr 03min 10sec)
2. Sam Sunderland (GBR) KTM 450 Rally (4hr 05min 08sec)
3. Helder Rodrigues (POR) Yamaha WR450 (4hr 14min 15sec)
4. Adrien Van Beveren (FRA) Yamaha WR450F (4hr 15min 23sec)
5. Jose Cornejo (CHI) KTM 450 Rally
(4hr 18min 04sec)
6. Juan Carlos Salvatierra (BOL) KTM 450 Replica (4hr 27min 26sec)

Quads
1. Ignacio Casale Catracchia (CHI) Yamaha Raptor 700 SE (4hr 55min 49sec)
2. Rafal Sonik (POL) Honda TRX 700
(5hr 17min 08sec*)
(*Subject to FIM Jury meeting)
Overall positions (Unofficial)

Cars
1. Nasser Saleh al-Attiyah (QAT)/Matthieu Baumel (FRA) Toyota Hilux Overdrive (8hr 28min 37sec)
2. Yazeed al-Rajhi (SAU)/Timo Gottschalk (DEU) Mini All4 Racing (8hr 37min 13sec)
3. Vladimir Vasilyev (RUS)/Konstantin Zhiltsov (RUS) Mini All4 Racing
(9hr 22min 06sec)
4. Ricardo Porém (POR)/Tom Colsoul (BEL) Mini All4 Racing (9hr 42min 30sec)
5. Yuriy Sazonov (KAZ)/Dmytro Tsyro (UKR) Hummer H3 III (9hr 50min 42sec)
6. Jutta Kleinschmidt (DEU)/Philipp Beier (DEU) X-raid CBRA (10hr 07min 09sec)
7. Marek Dabrowski (POL)/Jacek Czachor (POL) Toyota Hilux Overdrive
(10hr 48min 00sec)
8. Yerdan Shagirov (KAZ)/Vitaliy Yevtyekkhov (RUS) H3 Evo V
(11hr 02min 32sec)
9. Hernan Garces (CHI)/Juan Pablo Latrach (CHI) Ford Ranger (11hr 19min 20sec)
10. Adel Hussein Abdullah (QAT)/Nasser al-Kuwari (QAT) Nissan Patrol (T2)
11hr 23min 06sec
11. Yasir Seaidan (SAU)/Sébastien Delaunay (FRA) Toyota Land Cruiser (T2)
11hr 27min 12sec

Bikes
1. Sam Sunderland (GBR) KTM 450 Rally (10hr 58min 38sec)
1. Pablo Quintanilla (CHI) Husqvarna 450 Rally (10hr 58min 38sec)
3. Juan Carlos Salvatierra (BOL) KTM 450 Replica (11hr 19min 36sec)
4. Helder Rodrigues (POR) Yamaha WR450 (11hr 24min 54sec)
5. Pierre Alexander Renet (FRA)
Husqvarna 450 Rally (11hr 30min 18sec)
6. Scott Britnell (AUS) Husqvarna FE 450 (13hr 17min 51sec)
7. Mohamed al-Balooshi (ARE) KTM 450 (13hr 44min 40sec)

Quads
1. Ignacio Casale Catracchia (CHI) Yamaha Raptor 700 SE (12hr 32min 32sec)
2. Rafal Sonik (POL) Honda TRX 700
(13hr 08min 10sec*)
(*Subject to FIM Jury meeting)