Al-Attiyah maintains slender lead in Andalucia Rally
Qatar’s Nasser Saleh al-Attiyah retained the overall lead in the Andalucia Rally in Spain yesterday despite finishing third in the second leg. Al-Attiyah and his French codriver Matthieu Baumel were holding a narrow 1 minute 26-second lead with two legs remaining.
Local favourite Carlos Sainz closed the gap on al-Attiyah by winning yesterday’s second leg held between Seville and Cordoba. Sainz, driving a Mini Cooper with co-driver Lucas Cruz, finished the 339km route in 3:16.24 seconds.
Saudi Arabia’s Yazeed al-Rajhi and Germany’s Dirk Von Zitzewitz were second in a time of 3:17.32, just seven seconds ahead of al-Attiyah and Baumel. Both the pairs were behind the wheel of Toyota Hilux Overdrive.
Meanwhile, Nasser’s brother Khalifa al-Attiyah continued his impressive run by topping the T4 category for the second successive day. Khalifa and his co-driver Xavier Panseri timed 03:38:05 seconds in their Can Am Maverick XRS.