Al-Attiyah hopes to claw back in standings at home

Nasser Saleh al-Attiyah is the overwhelming favourite for the Manateq Qatar Cross-Country Rally championship, which will begin today, with the Qatari ace driver aiming to close the gap on his rivals for the overall championship title race.Having decided to skip the two rounds of this year’s series in Dubai and Abu Dhabi in March, al-Attiyah lost crucial points and is lagging behind for the World Cup title. In his absence, Czech driver Martin Prokop and Poland’s Jakub Przygonski seized the advantage.Prokop, driving a Ford F-150 Evo, currently leads his X-raid MINI rival Przygonski by nine points heading into their Qatar showdown. Al-Attiyah is 63 points adrift of the series leader. But the Qatari icon said he does not regret skipping the two rounds of the series in the UAE and is confident of taking full 60 points on offer this week and bounce back into contention.“I was not interested in competing in Dubai and Abu Dhabi because of what is happening to my country. I prefer to start here in Qatar. We won the first round of the World Cup, this will be the fourth round of the championship. I am happy. I believe in myself and I will do my best to win the race and come back into the championship race,” he said yesterday, on the sidelines of the Ceremonial Start in Katara.  Home advantage will certainly be on al-Attiyah side, with him having won all but one of the six Qatar Cross-Country Rallies that have run since it joined the FIA World Cup calendar in 2012. The last four victories have been earned with French co-driver Matthieu Baumel and the duo is the clear favourites to give the two-time Dakar Rally winner a sixth victory on home sand.“Of course I have the home advantage,” said al-Attiyah with a beaming smile. “Everyone knows I have a good experience. We have a good car – the V8-engined Toyota Hilux and we will prepare well for the race. We need to be clever to take 60 points. It’s a big challenge every year, with top drivers coming for the championship. It will not be easy. I am focused on this race because it’s a very important one and it’s our aim to win. It will not be easy but I believe in myself that I can win. I have a lot of experience in this kind of races,” he added.    The FIA-sanctioned event will be supported by several riders in an FIM cross-country rally and a strong line-up of Middle East competitors taking part in the Manateq Qatar Baja.The strong line-up also features Russia’s Vladimir Vasilyev, who has been consistent this season and scored some useful points in the UAE. The MINI One driver is third in the rankings – 24 points behind Prokop. Saudi Arabia’s Yasir Seaidan and 2009 Dakar winner Giniel de Villiers of South Africa are the other contenders.Meanwhile, Qatar’s Adel Abdulla will be looking to take the lead in the FIA T2 Championship for series production cross-country vehicles.Abdulla is currently six points behind Saudi Arabia’s Ahmed Shegawi. The Toyota Land Cruiser and Nissan Patrol drivers will continue their dusty duel through the Qatari deserts. Russia’s Yuliya Migunova-Khegay and Romania’s Laurentiu Claudiu Barbu will also be scrapping for points in T2.Abdulla was confident going into the race. “It’s a pleasure to race at home. We did a good job in 2016. We were leading in Qatar for a long time but suffered some technical issues. So we are hoping to win the race this time and take 50 points and lead the championship,” Abdulla said. Spain’s Jose Luis Pena Campo currently holds a one-point lead over French veteran Claude Fournier in the T3 category and the two Polaris RZR 1000 drivers will renew their rivalry in Qatar. The dusty and rocky deserts are not ideally suited to the lightweight T3 vehicles and the likes of Spaniard Santiago Navarro, Russian Ravil Maginov and Italy’s Michele Cinotto will need to err on the side of caution if they are to reach the finish of each of the demanding desert stages.The Super Special Stage will be held at 4:15pm at the Motocross Track of the Losail International Circuit. Tomorrow the Stage 2 will start at 7:30am, with Stage 3, Stage 4 and Stage 5 to be held on Friday, Saturday and Sunday respectively.