Saudi Arabia’s Yazeed Al Rajhi and German co-driver Timo Gotschalk in another Mini slipped one place to third, and are another six minutes off the pace, although the nature of this demanding event means it would be wrong to discount any of the leading challengers with two days remaining.
Poland’s Jakub Przygonski, Finn Mikko Hirvonen and American Bryce Menzies in three other Minis completed the top six in the second round of the FIA World Cup for Cross Country Rallies, as the previous day’s wind and rain was replaced by more typical desert weather.
While a succession of competitors became stuck in soft sand, it was a better day for the UAE’s Sheikh Khalid Al Qassimi, who put some earlier misfortunes behind him and rose two places in his Abu Dhabi Racing Mini to finish the stage in seventh position.
And it was a spectacularly much better day in the bikes category for Portugal’s Helder Rodrigues who won the stage after mechanical problems 24 hours earlier saw him plunge from contention and required the sweep team to return him to the bivouac.
With the top three again riding virtually in tandem for much of the stage, Australian first leg winner Toby Price reclaimed the overall lead, although his advantage over KTM team-mate, Dubai-based Sam Sunderland, is a slim 57 secs, with Chile’s Pablo Quintanilla just 18 seconds further away on his Husqvarna.
The UAE’s Mohammed Al Balooshi maintained his fourth position despite a crash on the stage, with Spain’s Txomin Arana Cobeaga and talented lady rider Laia Sanz completing the top six.
Veteran Dubai-based challenger Dave McBride maintained his ninth position in the opening round of this year’s FIM Cross Country Rallies World Championship.
“It’s been another great day of desert rallying, and quite a contrast from yesterday when we had some competitors saying they were affected by the rain and cold temperatures,” said Mohammed Ben Sulayem, President of the Automobile and Touring Club, the rally organizers. “You have to be ready for anything in the Desert Challenge – that’s the beauty of the event.”
Reaching the end of the Al Ain Water stage, Al-Attiyah said: “It was a good day. I got into good rhythm early on. There are some sharp dunes but the Toyota worked really well, and the navigation was perfect.
Vasilyev, whose co-driver Zhiltsov was celebrating his 51st birthday, said: “Today was a good day for an Abu Dhabi race. We had a good rhythm and not a bad result. We started four minutes after Nasser so couldn’t catch him, but we made no mistakes, had no punctures, we didn’t get stuck. No problems so we are very happy.”
Saudi Al-Rajhi, completing the leg with a smile on his face despite losing second position to the Russian, said: “It was a good stage. I got stuck a bit once but it was fun.”
Al Qassimi commented: “We had a few ups and downs and some sections were very rough and took a lot to get out of as it was soft. But we got out and we made it here so it’s good.
Happy to have snatched back the bikes lead, Price said: “There’s more and more and more sand, but it was a good trip on the bike and I caught the guys ahead. It was a long day but a great one, and I’m always having fun.”