Al Attiyah closes in on World title with victory in Poland

Szczecin, Poland: Overdrive Racing recorded their seventh FIA World Cup rally victory of the season when Qatar’s Al Attiyah and French navigator Matthieu Baumel secured the win in ORLEN Baja Poland, round nine of the FIA World Cup for Cross-Country Rallies, in Szczecin.
 The Qatari finished 3min 54sec in front of series rival Jakub Przygonski and now takes an unofficial 81-point championship lead to the remaining two rounds of the series in Morocco and Portugal, where there are a maximum 90 points at stake for the winner of both events.
Four of Overdrive Racing’s Toyota Hiluxes reached the finish: Dutchman Bernhard Ten Brinke and Belgian navigator Stéphane Prevot rounded off the podium places with an excellent third position and the Polish duo of Aron Domzala and Szymon Gospodarczyk finished fifth. Peter Van Merksteijn returned to cross-country action and teamed up with Frenchman Pascal Maimon to claim eighth in the fourth Hilux.
Al Attiyah made his intentions perfectly clear in the opening 7.08km Prologue stage on Friday evening. The Qatari carded the fastest time of 6min 09.7sec to snatch a lead of 5.1 seconds from series rival and Polish driver Jakub Przygonski. Domzala, Ten Brinke, Munk, and Van Merksteijn were fourth, seventh, ninth and 11th.
Al Attiyah opted to start the opening selective section of 215.90km through the Drawsko Pomorskie military firing range from third position. Domzala, Ten Brinke and Munk followed in fourth, fifth and eighth.
The Qatari’s starting position worked well and he safely negotiated the opening stage with the fastest time of 2hrs 21min 07sec to extend his lead over Przygonski to 27.1 seconds. Ten Brinke, Domzala and Van Merksteijn were fourth, seventh and eighth, but Munk suffered a niggling electrical problem and incurred a stage maximum penalty of eight hours.
Al Attiyah was slower on his second run through the stage but still set the quickest time and extended his advantage over Przygonski to 4min 09sec, as Domzala, Ten Brinke and Van Merksteijn were second, fourth and eighth quickest and held fifth, third and eighth at the overnight halt in Szczecin.
Yesterday’s competitive action consisted of two runs through a pair of 18.39km and 10.5km selective sections in the Dobra and Lubieszyn areas. Former champion Krzysztof Holowczyc recorded the quickest time of 17min 00sec in the opening Krzekowo stage, where Al Attiyah dropped 75 seconds and saw his outright lead reduced to 3min 15sec.
Peruvian Nicolas Fuchs was the surprise winner of the first of the runs through Lubieszyn, but Al Attiyah was able to increase his lead to 4min 18sec with the sixth quickest time. His three Overdrive colleagues retained their positions in the top 10 heading to service.
Przygonski trimmed Al Attiyah’s lead to 4min 07sec through the re-run of the Krzekowo special, but the sixth quickest time in the second pass through Lubieszyn enabled Al Attiyah to claim his sixth win of this year’s FIA World Cup campaign by 3min 54sec.