Al-Attiyah wins Cross-Country Rally in Qatar for seventh time in nine years
VIDEO SHOWS: MANATEQ QATAR CROSS-COUNTRY RALLY WITH NASSER AL-ATTIYAH WINNING THE RACE, SOUNDBITE AL-ATTIYAH SHOWS: LUSAIL, QATAR (FEBRUARY 27, 2020) (ICARUS - ACCESS ALL) 1.
AERIAL SHOT OF NASSER AL-ATTIYAH AND CO-DRIVER MATTHIEU BAUMEL OF TOYOTA GAZOO RACING ON THE CIRCUIT 2.
VARIOUS OF AL-ATTIYAH AND BAUMEL ON THE CIRCUIT 3.
VARIOUS OF YAZEED AL-RAJHI AND MICHAEL ORR (OVERDRIVE RACING) ON THE CIRCUIT 4.
AERIAL SHOT OF JAKUB PRZYGONSKI AND TIMO GOTTSCHALK OF ORLEN TEAM 5.
VARIOUS OF PRZYGONSKI AND GOTTSCHALK ON THE CIRCUIT 6.
(SOUNDBITE) (English) MANATEQ QATAR CROSS-COUNTRY RALLY WINNER, NASSER AL-ATTIYAH, SAYING: "Today was really not an easy day for everybody, but we won today.
This was a great result for me and the championship.
Yeh we are quite happy to win the Qatar Rally." 7.
AL-ATTIYAH AND BAUMEL CLIMBING ON TOP OF THEIR TOYOTA HILUX CAR TO CELEBRATE STORY: Four-time FIA World Cup Rally winner Nasser Al-Attiyah got his 2020 campaign off to the perfect start by securing victory in the opening Manateq Qatar Cross-Country Rally on Thursday (February 27).
Al-Attiyah, who is chasing a first World Cup rally crown since 2017, won four of five stages alongside French co-driver Baumel to secure overall victory in his home country for the seventh time in nine seasons.
Al-Attiyah and Baumel triumphed with a winning margin of one hour 31 minutes, 40 seconds despite finishing the final stage with two flat tyres.
Victory in Lusail gives the Qatari the perfect start in the five-round series which resumes next month with the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge.
The Toyota Gazoo pair held a lead in excess of one hour heading into Thursday's stage five and did enough to cruise through with Yazeed Al-Rajhi and Michael Orr finishing second overall for Overdrive Racing.
Poland's Jakub Przygonski and German navigator Timo Gottschalk battled back from a near two-hour time loss on day two to secure the final podium place on their first appearance together in a Toyota - completing a podium sweep of Toyota Hilux cars.
(Production: Elliot Richardson)