The Qatari driver and French navigator Matthieu Baumel won four of the five stages in their Overdrive Racing Toyota Hilux, running under the Tamim Al Majd Team banner, to reach the finish well ahead of former WRC star Martin Prokop.
Overdrive Racing entered three Toyotas in the only snow and ice round of the series, held over the demanding snow-covered forest trails of the Republic of Karelia in north-western Russia. Saudi Arabia’s Yasir Saiedan finished fifth with Russian navigator Alexei Kuzmich.
Poland’s Aron Domzala and Maciej Marton endured a fraught weekend in the third Toyota. Last year’s winner rolled his car on both of Saturday’s timed stages and retired before the second of the stages on the final day.
Al-Attiyah said: “It was a good rally for me. We were here for the first time and managed to win. I have a lot of fans in Russia. It was a nice start to the season and, of course, thanks to Toyota. It’s the best team.”
Al-Attiyah and Baumel kick-started the action through a 17km super special stage on Friday afternoon and set the target time of 12min 12sec in their 2017-specification Toyota Hilux. Rival Jakub Przygonski dropped 1min 25sec to the Qatari, but al-Attiyah’s Overdrive Racing teammate and last year’s Russian winner Domzala pipped the champion by four seconds to snatch the overnight lead.
Saeidan carded an impressive time of 13min 31sec on his debut with the Toyota and settled into sixth overall, beating Przygonski and the experienced Russian Boris Gadasin in the process.
Al-Attiyah extended his lead through the first of the selective sections on Saturday morning by beating Tapio Lauronen by 48 seconds and the Qatari was four minutes quicker than Russian driver Vladimir Vasilyev through the second one to extend his lead at the second overnight halt to 4min 20sec over Martin Prokop. Saiedan was sixth in the opener and fourth in the second stage to hold sixth overall, but Domzala dropped 13 minutes in the opener and then lost a further 24 minutes in SS3 after rolling his Toyota twice. He slipped to 16th overall.
The Pole said: “Yes, we rolled over twice. You can say, it was a pretty bad day. The first time I was a bit quicker in the turn that it was necessary. There was a snow bank and we overturned and blocked the road. Thanks to Yasir Saiedan for helping us and Martin Prokop the second time.”
Teams tackled a further two selective sections on Sunday before the ceremonial finish in the village of Vyartsilya. Al-Attiyah carded a time of 1hr 19min 50sec through the first stage to beat Prokop by 1min 18sec and extend his comfortable lead in the overall classification. Saeidan and Domzala were fifth and seventh.
There were no late dramas for the Qatari in the shorter final selective section and another fastest time – 15 seconds quicker than Prokop – earned the two-time Dakar winner his first victory in Russia. Saeidan was sixth quickest but Domzala retired before the stage start to cap a disappointing weekend for the Pole.
In the T2 category, Abdulla, the 2016 FIA T2 champion had been fighting with Russian driver Alexey Titov until he hit a snow bank on Saturday, but he and fellow Qatari Nasser al-Kuwari put that firmly to the back of their minds over the remaining two selective sections.
Running a Toyota Land Cruiser VDJ 200 with support from the Qatar Motor and Motorcycle Federation (QMMF) and the Qatar Government, Abdulla carded a time of 1hr 46min 25sec through the tricky fourth selective and that enabled him to beat Oliveira by 4min 04sec, as Titov extended his outright lead with the fastest time. Abdulla repeated the feat in the shorter final stage to earn the second fastest time in T2 behind Titov and confirm a useful haul of T2 championship points.
“But, we took some risks and pushed hard today. We took around four minutes from him on the first one. Even on the last stage we took six minutes and that moved us right up behind him at the end,” he said.
“I would like to thank the QMMF for their support. This is a small gift for His Highness the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani and a good result for us to get 15 points here in Russia at the beginning of the season. Nasser, my co-driver, also did a very good job on his first time in snow. The car was new for me and I was happy with the team. They did a good job with the car. I hope to do even better in the next races.”