- Al-Attiyah closes his gap to the FIA World Cup leader
In the Italian Baja, the MINI ALL4 Racing built by X-raid secured its fifth consecutive triumph, with Nasser Al-Attiyah and his navigator Mathieu Baumel crossing the finish line of the three-day event as the winners. At the end of the five special stages and a total distance of some 350 kilometres, the driver from Qatar clinched the win with a 1:24-minute lead over the second-placed driver and closed his gap to the FIA Cross Country Rally World Cup leader by 14 points.
In the short special stages of the Italian Baja, even the smallest mistakes make a major impact and so, the intervals between the front runners remained extremely small throughout the event. Nonetheless, Al-Attiyah succeeded in winning four of the five special stages, with his MINI ALL4 Racing.
“This was an extremely tough fight,” said Sven Quandt, CEO of the X-raid GmbH. “The racing was really close and every mistake would have cost you dearly. But on this kind of narrow roads, mistakes are made quickly. This event demonstrated that the complaints about the balance of performance between the manufacturers just aren’t justified.”
Overall Italian Baja:
1st N. Al Attiyah (QAT) / M. Baumel (FRA) MINI ALL4 Racing – 3h 59m 44s
2nd R. Varela (BRA) / G. Gugelmin (BRA) Toyota – 4h 01m 08s
3rd V. Vasilyev (RUS) / K. Zhiltsov (RUS) Toyota – 4h 03m 34s
4th M. Dabrowski (POL) / J. Czachor (POL) Toyota – 4h 06m 47s
5th M. Zapletal (CZ) / Ourednicek (CZ) H3 – 4h 10m 21s
