South Racing Can-Am Team’s Vorobyev leads FIA T3 Baja after claiming victory in Hungarian Baja

The Russian and his co-driver Kirill Shubin claimed victory in the competitive category by the margin of 18min 57sec in their Can-Am Maverick X3 that runs under the Zavidovo Racing Team banner. That meant that they overhauled race runner-up Santiago Navarro and former series leader Michele Cinotto in the points’ standings heading to the final three rounds of the series in Poland, Jordan and Portugal.

Oman’s Abdullah Al-Zubair and co-driver Faisal Al-Raisi crewed the second South Racing Can-Am, but were forced to retire the FZ Racing car after the first of the longer selective sections on Saturday afternoon. They crashed whilst leading the stage and the driver was forced out after fracturing two fingers in the incident.

“Fedor drove a smart race using his head to claim the win and he now leads the championship,” said South Racing Can-Am Team’s Scott Abraham. “The conditions here are tricky and he did well to stay out of trouble when his rivals were pushing.

“It’s another great race for the South Racing Can-Am Team with Fedor winning and South Racing-built Can-Ams sweeping the podium again. We have shown again that the Maverick is the class of the field. The result puts Fedor into the lead in the FIA World Cup for Bajas. That means that Can-Am is leading both the FIA Cross-Country World Cup and the FIA Baja World Cup.

“Now the team moves on to Baja Poland at the end of August, where Fedor will be hoping to retain his lead in the Baja World Cup.”

Action began with a super special stage of 7.18km in Várpalota that preceded the ceremonial start. Navarro clocked the quickest time of 5min 31.1sec in the T3 category and headed into the overnight halt with a lead of just 1.3 seconds over Aleksandr Dorosinskiy. The South Racing Can-Am duo of Al-Zubair and Vorobyev were third and fourth in the rankings.

Vorobyev stormed to the top of the rankings in the first of two runs through the selective section of 208.06km between Várpalota and Stigibácsi on Saturday morning. The Russian clocked a time of 2hrs 43min 08sec to snatch a lead of 20min 52sec over Navarro, as Dorosinskiy, Al-Zubair and Michele Cinotto all dropped time and an accident sidelined Al-Zubair, who had been fastest in the early part of the special.

Dorosinskiy hit back with the quickest time on the second pass, where Navarro and Vorobyev sealed second and third places. The outcome meant that Vorobyev headed into the overnight halt with a lead of 21min 02sec over Navarro.

Crews tackled two passes through the Gyulafirátót selective section on Sunday and the leading duo tied to the second with a stage time of 1hr 02min 00sec for the opening run. Navarro was quicker than his rival in the final stage, but it mattered not and Vorobyev had done enough to move to the top of the T3 rankings heading into the final three rounds.

Source: Automobilsport