Akeel And Duplé stun rivals to lead Qatar international Baja

LUSAIL (Qatar): Saudi Arabian driver Dania Akeel and her French navigator Stéphane Duplé delivered a stunning performance to lead the car category after a dramatic day’s action at the Qatar International Baja on Friday.

The Overdrive Racing Toyota Hilux crew won the opening stage and then ceded time to their main rivals through the second one but did enough to take a lead of 92.9 seconds into the night halt. As a result, they lead all the crews in the FIA Middle East Baja Cup.

Akeel said: “That’s it! This is our first stage win overall. I had a great time. Stéphane was amazing. The cap was changing. The stage was fast, twisty, rocky and a really nice sector by the sea. That was really steep for the first time. That was really good training. We are in a perfect position for tomorrow. It’s going to be a really fun ride.”

Denis Krotov and Konstantin Zhiltsov hold second and lead the FIA World Baja Cup crews in their new petrol-engined X-Raid Mini JCW Rally 3.0i, while the Portuguese pairing of João Ferreira and Filipe Palmeiro are third overall and lead the SSV section in a Can-Am Maverick XRS Turbo RR.

Krotov’s X-Raid team manager Tobias Quandt said: “It was a nice day for us for testing. Our engine is still in development but we are on a pretty good level. It’s a nice fight and a nice race. Denis had one puncture on the first stage but he did a good job and we are super happy to have him back in the team.”

Ferreira said: “The stages were very fast. It was very difficult navigation. I have never seen anything like this. It is very difficult to see the tracks and the junctions. We finish without any problems and Filipe did an amazing job from the navigation side. We are third and leading SSV. We are very happy.”

João Dias came home in fourth place in the second of the Santag Racing Can-Ams in the SSV section and Saudi Arabia’s Mooaz Hariri moved ahead of Czech driver Miroslav Zapletal to snatch fifth in his Can-Am. Khalid Al-Jafla leads the Challenger section in his eighth-placed Taurus T3 Max.

Kuwait’s Abdullah Al-Shatti (Kawasaki) and Saudi Arabia’s Hani Al-Noumesi topped the motorcycle and quad times after the second stage of the FIM event where several riders missed vital route waypoints with the tricky navigation across the deceptive desert terrain.