Nasser Al-Attiyah and Mathieu Baumel lead the way after infamous Tibniya to Farafra stage
MINI ALL4 Racing dominance of the 2015 FIA Cross Country Rally World Cup has continued at the Pharaons Rally in Egypt this week, with even the infamous leg 3 from Tibniya to Farafra today being insufficient to affect the pace and performance of the MINI ALL4 Racing machines.
Pre-race preparation and testing gave the four driver and co-driver pairings the experience and skill needed to tackle the demanding soft dunes, fast pistes, plateaus as well as the notoriously difficult fesh-fesh – a fine dust-like sand that makes for intense navigation.
When G-Energy Team’s Vladimir Vasilyev commented after the race that he and fellow Russian, Konstantin Zhiltsov could feel Qatar Rally Team’s Nasser Al-Attiyah and co-driver Mathieu Baumel ahead but couldn’t see them, he may have only been half joking.
Prior to the event taking place, organisers of the Pharaons Rally had drawn special attention to the challenge of leg 3, but all four MINI ALL4 Racing machines proved they were up to that challenge in the capable hands of their drivers and co-drivers.
Three of the four teams ended the leg in top four positions: Nasser Al-Attiyah and Mathieu Baumel in second place, Erik Van Loon and Wouter Rosegaar in third position and Vladimir Vasilyev and Konstantin Zhiltsov in fourth, leaving Al-Attiyah and Baumel leading the way overall with just two legs remaining of the 2,300km race to Giza in Cairo against the backdrop of the Great Pyramids.
Nasser said: “We are leading in overall so I’m happy. The terrain is challenging but that makes for a great event and gives us the opportunity to push the MINI ALL4 Racing and prove how capable it is, even in such a challenging leg.”
Vasilyev said: “We didn’t see Nasser in front of us but felt him...
We kept our own rhythm and didn’t make any mistakes. Good rhythm, good speed, good car. It was a little bit difficult from the navigational side, but we found the way.”
Although Adam Malysz and his new co-driver Xavier Panseri finished the leg further back in seventh place today, they remain in the top four overall, proving that their bi-lingual approach to communication is working in their combined efforts to tackle some of the world’s most difficult driving terrains.
Malysz said: “We have good speed and we can work very well together - we speak sometimes in English sometimes French and find our way together. So, all in all I’m happy with my position.”
