HAIL — Saudi Arabian driver Yazeed Al-Rajhi and his German navigator Timo Gottschalk continued to pull away from the rest of the field after the first of three demanding desert selective sections of the 10th Hail Nissan International Rally here Friday. Driving a powerful Hummer on the split stage, the Riyadh driver lost a chunk of time after the break between the two halves of the stage in Turba, but pushed on to reduce the damage done over the closing kilometers. He leads the event by over half an hour from unofficial second-placed driver Rajeh-Farhan Al-Shammeri (Nissan). Muteb Saud Al-Shammeri holds an unofficial third position in another Nissan, pending any time penalties imposed by event organizers this evening. “I wanted to drive my Hummer here to prove to everyone that the car is strong and competitive and can win major international rallies,” said Al-Rajhi. Forty-five cars and seven motorcycles and quads set out into the first of the all-desert days, with the cars tackling one stage made up of two selective sections of 130.20km and 158.56km and the motorcycles and quads taking on a 140.15km loop around Baqa'a. Ahmed Al-Nasser took up the running at the head of the motorcycle field and super special winner Yazeed Al-Rajhi was first out of the blocks in the car category and began to edge away from his closest challenger Yayha Al-Helai. Abdulaziz Al-Hazlol retired from the quad category shortly after the start.
Al-Rajhi continued to edge away from Al-Helai and a large gap developed between the Emirati and his fellow countryman Ali Al-Ketbi in third. Al-Nasser stormed to the stage win in the motorcycle and quad class with a time of 1hr 07min 24sec, but Abdul-Majeed Al-Khulaifi missed crucial checkpoints and lost out on second place to Abdulsalem-Rami Hamam in the unofficial standings, although the latter suffered a fuel shortage. By the end of the first section in Turba, Al-Rajhi's lead over Al-Helai had grown to 3min 11sec in the car section and Rajah-Farhan Al-Shammeri was a further four minutes behind, with Ahmed Al-Gashami running in a virtual fourth place. Rakan-Yousef Al-Sallum retired his Polaris with mechanical issues and Salman-Saad Al-Shammeri, who began the day in third overall, rolled his Toyota into retirement. Saeed-Zaki Al-Mouri also suffered technical issues.
