The French father and daughter duo of Lionel and Lucie Baud delivered the best performance of their careers to hold a slender lead after a punishing 225.71km special stage at the Jordan Baja yesterday. Young British rider Alex McInnes was the class of the motorcycle field from the start on his KTM and took an advantage of 13min 28.3sec over Saudi rider Abdulhalim Al-Mogheera into the night halt in Aqaba. Demanding navigation and rocky mountainous terrain gave way to faster open sections of desert as the day’s stage meandered its way through stunning Wadi Rum. Baud gradually climbed through the field over the closing kilometres in the solitary diesel-engined X-Raid Mini JCW Rally Plus to lead the Baja by just 1.8 seconds. The delighted Frenchman said: “We make a very good result. My daughter made beautiful navigation. I feel comfortable with the car and I tried to go as fast as possible. It was nice.” His daughter Lucie added: “It’s our first win in the World Championship and in the World Baja Cup. It was amazing, the navigation and the stage was very tough. You have to be very focused, more than the Dakar, for example. Tomorrow, we will open the stage. I like to open because you don’t have many tracks and you have to find the good direction.” Nasser in second spot Nasser Saleh al-Attiyah and his French navigator Max Delfino narrowly missed out on the stage win and hold second place. They enjoyed their first ever taste of the southern Jordan region, although the Qatari trailed the likes of Dania Akeel and Saood Variawa through the opening kilometres in the mountains. He took full advantage of the lightweight nature of his two-wheel drive MD Optimus Buggy in the faster open desert later in the stage and led the special before being pegged back by an impressive Baud near the finish. Al-Attiyah said: “It was not easy. It was good to manage. With the rear-wheel drive, it was difficult in the climb but we are happy.” Defending FIA Middle East Baja Cup champion Dania Akeel and her navigator Sébastien Delaunay led through the opening checkpoints and eventually finished in third position in an Overdrive Racing Toyota Hilux Evo. Akeel said: “It was very challenging and technical. The terrain was tricky. I kept my mind more on the conservative side with a lot of caution. I didn’t rely too much on the dangers in the road book. It’s really tricky terrain here. It was very challenging in a good way.” Toyota Gazoo Racing’s Saood Variawa and François Cazalet were fourth in another Hilux. Variawa said: “To be honest, it is my first time in this country and my first time racing here with the terrain. Some places were really tricky and dangerous for me, especially opening the road. We passed all the bikes and there was literally no bike line. I had to get the nerves of opening the road out of the way. We lost some time in the dust and then Nasser caught and passed us and then we passed him 13km from the finish. Good points for the championship but we have to push tomorrow.” Yasir Seaidan was given road-opening duties but the Saudi maintained control of the Challenger category after Hamed Al-Wahaibi’s 10-minute time penalty on Thursday. Seaidan is fifth in his Taurus Evo Max. Seaidan said: “It was very difficult. We opened and the first part was crazy hard navigation in mountains and rocks. It was like Dakar. I thought Jordan Baja would be easy. After 70km, Saood overtook us and the terrain was better and open. After 150km, Nasser also overtook us and the navigation became much easier. We pushed more and we finished without any problems.” Czech privateer Miroslav Zapletal was sixth in a Ford F-150 Evo and Abdulaziz Al-Kuwari teamed up with Stéphane Duplé to hold seventh and second in the Challenger class in his Taurus T3 Max. Today, the second stage through Wadi Rum runs for 195.38km before the ceremonial finish formalities take place on the marina at the Ayla resort in Aqaba in the afternoon.
Saturday, February 14, 2026
Saturday, February 14, 2026
Friday, February 13, 2026
Thursday, February 12, 2026
Wednesday, February 11, 2026
