Qatar’s Abdulla in second place

Veszprém, Hungary: Nissan’s Adel Hussein Abdulla added vital points to his FIA T2 World Championship tally by finishing a strong second in the category at the Hungarian Baja, round six of the FIA World Cup for Cross-Country Rallies, yesterday.The Qatari and French navigator Jean-Michel Polato lost time on the first of two stages on Saturday with a niggling technical issue and regained most of the lost time over the subsequent two stages to climb back into second place and finish 6min 26sec behind category winner and series leader, Yasir Saeidan, of Saudi Arabia.Running a Nissan Patrol with support from Nissan Middle East and the Qatar Motor and Motorcycle Federation (QMMF), Adel is still confident that he can win this year’s FIA T2 World Championship heading to the remaining three rounds of the series in Poland, Morocco and Portugal.“It was a bit frustrating this morning because we had a problem with the navigational trip meter and didn’t know the exact distances between some of the corners in the road book,” said the Doha-based driver. “This caused us to slow down and lose vital seconds here and there. I am still happy to finish second after the issues we had yesterday and we are still in a very strong position for the championship.” The Qatari headed into the second stage on Saturday afternoon in third position in T2, trailing the series leader by 4min 27sec. Saeidan edged the third stage with a time of 2hrs 06min 10sec to reach the overnight halt with an advantage in T2 of 4min 41sec, but the second fastest time for Adel Hussein lifted him ahead of Poland’s Mariusz Wiatr and into second position in the standings.Qatar’s Mohammed al-Harqan held third overall and Polish driver Jaroslaw Kazberuk rose to fourth when Wiatr lost 13 minutes in the stage and slipped to fifth.The final stage on yesterday morning ran for just over 170 km. Adel Hussein trailed Saeidan by just 34 seconds at the first timed checkpoint and the Saudi crossed the finish line to card a time of 2hrs 05min 07sec for a total of 6hrs 30min 58sec to confirm the win.Adel Hussein made a superb fight back over the closing kilometres and reached the stage finish just 1min 46sec behind the Saudi to earn 21 championship points for second place.