Al-Attiyah takes Rally Morocco lead as Sainz stops
Two-time Dakar winner Nasser Al-Attiyah established a comfortable advantage out front in Rally Morocco with one day to go as erstwhile leader Carlos Sainz stopped.
Photo by: X-Raid Team
Peugeot driver Sainz had led Al-Attiyah by five minutes coming into Day 4 and was the leader at CP1 at the 75km mark.
However, he stopped just three kilometres later with a technical problem and is yet to come through at CP2.
Al-Attiyah, who won the rally last year, completed the 292km stage less than a minute off Toyota pacesetter Yazeed Al-Rajhi and thus will carry a lead of 16 minutes over the Saudi driver into the final day.
Al-Rajhi himself passed fellow Toyota driver Vladimir Vasilyev, the Russian now 19 minutes off the lead.
Nine-time WRC champion Sebastien Loeb was third quickest through the stage after nursing a slow puncture to the finish, but is not in contention in the overall classification due to trouble on Day 1 and Day 3.
His long-time rival Mikko Hirvonen, who starred yesterday, was 4m39s off Al-Rajhi on Day 4 and has moved into the top six in the classification, just 17 seconds off fifth-placed Leeroy Poultier.
A strong showing from former ski jumping world champion Adam Malysz saw the Polish driver enter the top 10.
Overall classification after Day 4
Pos. | Driver/Co-driver | Car | Time/Delay |
1 |
Nasser Al-Attiyah Matthieu Baumel |
MINI | 11h03m12s |
2 |
Yazeed Al-Rajhi Timo Gottschalk |
Toyota | 16m10s |
3 |
Vladimir Vasilyev Konstantin Zhiltsov |
Toyota | 19m24s |
4 |
Giniel de Villiers Dirk von Zitzewitz |
Toyota | 24m50s |
5 |
Leeroy Poulter Robert Howie |
Toyota | 33m30s |
6 |
Mikko Hirvonen Michel Perin |
MINI | 33m47s |
7 |
Ricardo Porem Jorge Monteiro |
Toyota | 55m40s |
8 |
Harry Hunt Andreas Schulz |
MINI | 1h01m26s |
9 |
Adam Malysz Xavier Panseri |
MINI | 1h05m46s |
10 |
Miroslav Zapletal Maciej Marton |
Hummer | 1h12m48s |
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