MUSCAT (Oman): Oman Rally Team’s Abdullah Al Rawahi and Jordanian co-driver Ata Al Hmoud held a comfortable lead of 5min 23.2sec after a further six gravel stages of the Oman International Rally on Friday.
“I am very happy with how the day went,” said Al-Rawahi. “We knew that Nasser would need to push very hard from the start and it was just a case of focusing on our job in hand and keeping our concentration. The rear puncture was not the best of starts but we recovered well and now the outcome is in our hands on the final day.”
After crashing on Thursday’s super special, Qatar’s Nasser Al Attiyah and his Andorra-based co-driver Mathieu Baumel began a daunting fightback through the field from 13th overall.
They won each of the day’s stages but progress was severely hampered when the event Stewards imposed a second penalty of five minutes and a suspended fine on the Volkswagen Golf crew for a seat belt violation that had occurred on the super special stage.
The Qatari reached the night halt in seventh overall and trails the leader by 11min 27.4sec.
