SAUDI AL-RAJHI IS GAINING THE LEAD BY RESULTS OF THE FIRST RACES AT THE ROUND OF FIA WORLD CUP

“RALLY KAZAKHSTAN 2019”

KENDERLI, May 27, 2019 The first competitive day of FIA Cross Country Rally “Rally Kazakhstan 2019” is over. According to the results of the first stage, Yazeed Al-Rajhi from Saudi Arabia set the best time, the winner of “Rally Kazakhstan 2017” Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah from Qatar, showed the second result, and the Polish crew rally driver Jakub Przygonski set the third result. The distance of the first stage of the “Rally Kazakhstan 2019” was 280 kilometers.

In the first leg of the rally the participants drove to the south from the city of Aktau towards Kenderli resort, located 210 km south-east from the regional center. The first competitive day was tightly contested. The world best racers started actively and were moving to the finish with short gaps. A favorable weather allowed the racers to drive fast to the finish of the first competition day. All participants of the “Rally Kazakhstan 2019” crossed the finish line without difficulty and technical incidents.

One of the Kazakhstan round favorites, current champion of the Dakar rally, Qatari Nasser Saleh Al-Attiya (Nasser Al-Attiya Team) together with his co-driver Matthieu Bomel on their Toyota Hilux Overdrive, started perfectly and firmly kept the leading positions to the finish, covering the distance for 2 hours 22 minutes and 3 seconds. However, it later became known that Nasser was fined for 1 minute for speeding in the restricted area. Thus, he yielded first place to the crew of the “Rally Kazakhstan 2018” winner, Yazeed Al-Rajhi (Overdrive Racing). Racer from Saudi Arabia on Toyota Hilux Overdrive finished with a result of 2 hours 22 minutes and 5 seconds.

Nasser Saleh al-Attiyah had to change the wheel during the race, but despite the time lost he he managed to finish as one of the leaders. The racer from Qatar after the races shared his impressions about the first day of competition.

- Thanks to our team work and out crew cohesion, we covered the distance faster than our competitors, having saved precious seconds. If you remember, last year our car was serious damaged at the very first stage and we had to stop our competition. So far everything is going according to the plan and we are extremely optimistic despite the one minute fine. The current task is to be as careful as possible, and to keep our leadership in the following stages, - said Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah.

The crew of Yazeed Al-Rajhi was the fourth to start, and according to his co-driver Dirk von Zitzewitz, they first reached the crew of Stephane Peterhansel (X-raid MINI JCW Team), and then started to compete the crew of Vladimir Vasiliev (VRT Team), as a result, they were able to run away from the Russian crew shortly before the finish.

- We are very happy to see our results of the first day. We felt the drive and the real spirit of competition driving from Aktau to Kenderli. There are still many days of racing ahead, it is important not to lose concentration even for a minute. We are going to follow our current strategy - said Yazeed Al-Rajhi.

The current World Cup Cross Country Rallies champion Jakub Przygonski (Orlen X-raid Team) on Mini John Cooper was the third to finish, the crew of the Polish racing driver arrived 2 minutes and 59 seconds behind the winner of the first day.

- Today we had a really interesting route along beautiful natural landscapes. We were seventh to start and third to finish, and the leaders are not too much ahead of us. We need to keep our result stable and gradually improve it, thinking of how to distribute our efforts, - said Polish racer Jakub Przygonski.

One of the leaders in the current World Cup overall standings, Stephane Peterhansel(X-raid MINI JCW Team) and his wife as the co-driver took the eighth position. An experienced Kazakhstan racer,  representative of the “OFF ROAD Kazakhstan” team Andrei Cherednikov with his co-driver Ignat Falkov were right behind. Despite the fact that the Kazakhstan team is almost 26 minutes behind the leader, they are in combative mood and ready to continue the race at high speed.

The first day was unsuccessful for Stephane Peterhansel. This legendary French racer at the very high speed damaged the tire of his Mini John Cooper Works Rally. It took a lot of time to change the wheel, and he fell seriously behind the leading racers. The French driver participates in the "Rally Kazakhstan" for the first time, and he has yet to get used to the specific tracks of Mangystau.

In T2 category, another Qatari race Mohhamed Nasser Almeer, set the best time with a result of 3 hours 9 minutes and 9 seconds. The second and third positions were taken by Turkmenistan racers, the representatives of the Turkmenistan Autosport Federation. Reinaldo Varela (MONSTER Energy Can-Am), Brazilian race car driver was the first to finish in T3 category with a result of 3 hours and 4 minutes. In the Trucks category Dmitry Sotnikov from the Russian Kamaz-master team was the best, his crew covered the distance of the first day in 3 hours 2 minutes and 59 seconds.

On Tuesday, May 28, the racers will face the longest special stage of 414 km through sands and dunes. The second day will include a ring section starting and finishing in Kenderli bivouac through desert to the east around Senek settlement.

Preliminary results after SS1

1. Yazeed Al-Rajhi, Dirk von Zitzewitz, X-Raid Team 2:22:05
2. Nasser Al Attiyah, Matthieu Bomel, Nasser Al-AttiyaTeam 2:23:03
3. Jakub Przygonski, Timo Gottschalk, Orlen X-raid Team 2:25:04
4. Vladimir Vasiliev, Konstantin Zhiltsov, VRT Team 2:29:52
5. Bernard ten Brinke, Tom Colsul, Overdrive Racing 2:30:26
6. Denis Krotov, Dmitry Ziro, MSK Rally Team 2:42:07
7. Miroslav Zapletal, Sikora M., Zapletal Miroslav Team 2:43:04
8. Stephane Peterhansel, Andrea Peterhansel, X-raid MINI JCW Team 2:44:53
9. Andrey Cherednikov, Ignat Falkov, OFF ROAD Kazakhstan Team 2:47:39
10. Alexey Ignatov, Evgeny Pavlov, GAZ RAID SPORT Team 3:08:53
11. Gurbanberdi Danatarov, Rafael Gainulin, Turkmenistan Autosport Federation Team 3:12:24
12. Evgeny Sukhovenko, Kirill Chapayev, GAZ RAID SPORT Team 3:42:45
13. Alexander Sukhov and Azamat Munalov, Aktau Motorsport Team 4:13:48

All information about the routes and results can be found on the official website www.rallykazakhstan.com.

For more information, please contact the Press Agency of the Automotosport Federation of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Almaty, Kazybek Bi Str., 22, tel: + 7 727 266 21 08, + 7 777 020 12 60, E-mail: y.amangeldi@infores.kz and rallykazakhstan@gmail.com.