Neil Perkins

 

HAIL — The UAE crew of Khalid Al-Jafla and Ahmad Malik stormed through the field to take an unofficial outright lead in the FIA-sanctioned Hail International Rally after the third leg and the second desert selective section across the An Nafud desert Tuesday.



Al-Jafla displayed impressive form in his Chevrolet Buggy and won the special after starting from fifth overall and seventh position on the road this morning, despite losing time near the stage finish.



Former winner Rajeh Al-Shammeri began the day 25th on the road and in 29th overall after massive time penalties, but he battled through the field to record the second quickest time. Several of the top runners hit problems during the stage.



Tuesday’s stage started at Jubbah and finished at Kna’ for the cars and at Al-Muhaffar for the bikes and quads. The cars ran for 192.68km of competition and the bikes and quads tackled a competitive section of 105.05km.



Unofficial overall leader Mutair Al-Shammeri was handed a 1hr 52min time penalty at the overnight halt and this pushed the Saudi down to 15th in the rankings and handed the lead to Farhan Al-Shammeri. The original leader had placed his Toyota on a trailer after the special stage and reached Hail without actually driving the road section.



Farhan duly arrived at the start of Tuesday’s stage with an 8min 39sec advantage over Khaled Al-Shammeri, with Motad Saud retaining third and Ridha Lafi moving up to fourth place. Thirty-one of the original 36-car entries started the day, but Mufadi Al-Shammeri stopped at the start and Ahmed Al-Qashimi suffered technical issues shortly afterwards.



Fifth-placed Khalid Al-Jafla was the fastest of the leading group at PC1, but newly instated leader Farhan Al-Shammeri had already dropped 18 minutes and lost his advantage to Khalid Al-Shammeri.



Mutair Al-Shammeri was still permitted to run first on the road and he began to drop time as the pack chased him down, but Al-Jafla was driving superbly in the Buggy and the Emirati reached PC2 well clear of the chasing group.



Ali Al-Kitbi and Ahmed Al-Shuhail were running in a virtual second and third through the stage after starting further down the field. Saleh El-Hout, former winner Rajeh Al-Shammeri and Saleh Al-Abdulali were also pushing hard at the rear of the car entry.



Al-Jafla lost time near the end of the special and arrived at the finish with Mutair Al-Shammeri, but he still climbed up the leaderboard. Khaled Al-Shammeri also finished well ahead of the chasing pack but there was no position for the Saudi at PC4 and he had the risk of time penalties to follow. Many of the front-runners struggled through the closing kilometers and Ridha Lafi was the fourth driver to cross the finish line.



Sultan Al-Masood was handed the overall motorcycle/quad lead at the Maghwat Conference Center Monday evening after Ahmed Al-Nasser incurred a fistful of time penalties and the Saudi headed into Tuesday’s stage with a 28-second lead over Meshal Al-Khaledi once tracking and route vagaries had been taken into account. But the Saudi stopped shortly after the start and Meshal Al-Khaledi and Abdul Majeed Khulaifi hit the front, with Al-Khaledi well clear at PC2, despite all the riders taking on extra water because of the heat.



At PC2, Al-Khaledi had a 16min 33sec advantage over Khulaifi, with Ahmed Al-Nasser in third. This had given Al-Khaledi the virtual overall lead. The event finishes at the Maghwat Conference Centre Thursday afternoon after 856.7km of competition in a total route of 1,685.83km.