Nasser Al-Attiyah is the new leader of the BP Ultimate Rally-Raid Portugal, a round of the Rally-Raid World Cup (W2RC). The reigning champion was the fastest on the second stage, which took place this Thursday in the Alentejo region with start and finish in Grândola.
In a Prodrive Hunter from Nasser Racing by Prodrive, Al-Attiyah took 1h47m21s to complete the 166km timed stage, beating Sébastien Loeb (Red Bull Off-Road Junior Team USA by BFG/Taurus) by 35 seconds. The Frenchman won in the Challenger category, while Yazeed Al Rajhi (Overdrive Racing/Toyota) finished third, 1m11s behind Al-Attiyah, as the second T1 Ultimate.
Following were the X-Raid MINIs of João Ferreira and Carlos Sainz. The top five in the Ultimate category was completed by Marco Baumgart Sroczynski (X Rally Team/Prodrive Hunter), while further down Nicolas Cavigliasso (Taurus) was the second in the Challenger category, 4m02s behind Loeb in ninth place overall in the cars.
After two stages, Al-Attiyah leads the Rally-Raid Portugal with just a 20-second advantage over Al Rajhi. Sainz is in third, Ferreira in fourth, and Loeb in fifth as the first in the Challenger category – where his main rival, João Dias (Santag Racing/Can-Am), is 3m54s behind.
