Al Attiyah Wins Third Stage Title of Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge

Abu Dhabi Desert Rally

Qatari driver Nasser bin Saleh Al Attiyah continued his brilliance in the Abu Dhabi Desert Rally, which constitutes the second round of the World Rally-Raid Championship, after winning the third stage title.

Al Attiyah, the world and Dakar Rally champion, and his French navigator, Mathieu Baumel, scored the fastest time in the third stage, which extended for a distance of 270 km, after he was the fastest in the second stage. He sets before him the goal of winning the speed stages in which points are counted in the world championship that was created by the International Automobile Federation for the first time this year and consists of five rounds, starting with the Dakar Rally, in which Nasser Al Attiyah achieved the fourth victory in the largest rally in the world.

The Abu Dhabi Rally constitutes the second round of the championship, with three rounds remaining: Kazakhstan, Andalusia and Morocco. Nasser Al Attiyah has previously won all these rallies, and won the title of some of them several times.

Only two stages remain at the end of the Abu Dhabi Desert Rally, and Al Attiyah is looking forward to winning and climbing the overall standings to a better position and collecting the most points to continue to lead the world championship in which he is competing with the veteran French nine-time world rally champion Sebastien Loeb, who finished second in the Dakar Rally. But he is behind in the world championship standings behind Nasser Al Attiyah, knowing that he did not win any stage of the Abu Dhabi Desert Rally this year.

Al Attiyah is looking forward to becoming the first world champion in World Rally-Raid Championship, after the International Automobile Federation decided to adopt it this year as a new world championship, after it had been for the past years since 1993 the World Cup for Cross Country Rally.

The organizing committee commended the strong performance of Nasser Al Attiyah and his assistant during the second and third stages, and their progress over all participants in both stages with a large difference in timing.

Al Attiyah is participating in the Abu Dhabi Desert Rally aboard a Toyota Hilux classified in the T1+ category, which he drove for the first time in the last Dakar Rally and won with it, with the help of his French assistant Mathieu Baumel, which is the fifth race of Nasser Al Attiyah this year after the Dakar Rally and the Oman Sohar Rally. (Middle East Rally Championship) and Qatar International Rally (Middle East Rally Championship, and the NEOM Rally in Saudi Arabia, the opening round of the second season in the Extreme E Electric Off-Road Racing Championship, Al Attiyah has achieved three victories so far in the Dakar Rally, the Oman Sohar Rally and the Qatar Rally International. (QNA)