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SA-built Hiluxes lead in Qatar

The three South African-built Toyota Hiluxes of Overdrive Racing completed the first desert stage of the 2012 Qatar Cross-Country Rally in first, second and fourth positions. The results move them up to first, third and fourth in the overall standings.
 
Nasser Al-Attiyah and co-driver Lucas Cruz Senra dominated the second stage of the rally, and now have a comfortable 11min 07sec lead going into the second of four desert stages.

Al-Attiyah said: “It was a good start to the rally. I wanted to push to see the real pace of the Toyota. The Hilux performed perfectly on the difficult stage. There is still a long way to go in the rally and Lucas and I look forward to the next couple of days.”

'NO FLUKE'

The Argentinean duo of Lucio Alvarez and Ronnie Graue finished the stage in second place to hold third in the overall standings.

Qatar’s Faisal Al-Attiyah and French co-driver Matthieu Baumel started in 10th, climbed to seventh at the first checkpoint and moved up to fifth at the next one.

Overdrive team director Jean-Marc Fortin said: “All the teams really did a great job today. Nasser and Lucas showed why they are considered one of the top crews in cross-country. Lucio also showed great pace today, further proving that his recent fifth place on the Dakar was no fluke.
 
“For me, the big surprise of the day was Faisal and Matthieu. Their fourth place on the stage was impressive when you take into account that they suffered a puncture en route. But we still have a long way to go,” he added.

Results: Super special stage one of the Qatar Cross-Country Rally

1 Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah (Qatar)/Lucas Cruz Senra (Spain) Toyota Hilux - 3h 06min19.1 seconds
2 Yazeed Al-Rajhi (Saudi Arabia)/Filipe Palmeiro (Portugal) Mini All4 - 3h 17min26.7s
3 Lucio Alvarez (Argentina)/Bernardo Graue (Argentina) Toyota Hilux - 3h 18min19.8s
4 Faisal Al-Attiyah (Qatar)/Matthieu Baumel (France) Toyota HiLux - 3h 23min12.4s
5 Jean-Louis Schlesser (France)/Konstantin Zlitstov (Russia) Schlesser - 3h 24min55.4s
6 Khalifa Al-Mutaiwei (United Arab Emirates)/Andreas Schulz (Germany) Mini All4 - 3h 26min47.0s
7 Vladimir Vasilyev (Russia)/Vitaliy Yevtyekhov (Russia) G-Force Proto - 3h 36min30.8s
8 Boris Gadasin (Russia)/Dan Shchemel (Russia) G-Force Proto - 3h 41min52.7s
9 Ilya Kusnetsov (Russia)/Roman Elagin (Russia) BMW X3 - 3h 46min57.9s
10. Miroslav Zapletal (Czech Republic)/Miloslav Janacek (Czech Republic) BMW X3 - 3h 50min41.1 s
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