Champion al-Attiyah aims to tighten grip on title in Poland

Qatar’s Nasser Saleh al-Attiyah will look to tighten his grip on the FIA World Cup for Cross-Country Rallies title in Orlen Baja Poland, that starts on Friday.Overdrive Racing will send a fleet of six Toyota Hiluxes to this weekend’s Orlen Baja Poland, round nine of the FIA World Cup for Cross-Country Rallies.Based at Szczecin and taking place on September 1-3, the three-day event has attracted one of the largest entries in the cross-country calendar and 134 cars, bikes, quads and trucks will take part on this occasion.Apart from the defending champion al-Attiyah, Overdrive Racing will have the Dutch trio of Bernhard Ten Brinke, Erik Van Loon and Peter van Merksteijn joining Dane Jes Munk and the host nation’s Aron Domzala in the line-up.Al-Attiyah and French navigator Matthieu Baumel arrive in Sczcecin directly from competing in the Rally of Lebanon and the Qatari currently has a 72-point lead in the drivers’ standings.Victory in Poland — to follow five previous wins this season in Dubai, Qatar, Kazakhstan, Spain and Hungary — would give al-Attiyah at least an advantage of 81 points to take to the final two rounds of the series in Morocco and Portugal in October. Al-Attiyah claimed his first victory in Poland last season.“This is an important rally for me and the whole team and the outcome could put us in a very strong position to retain the FIA World Cup title,” said al-Attiyah. “It is not an easy rally and there is strong competition, particularly from the local drivers in Poland.”Poland’s Aron Domzala holds fifth in the championship standings after finishing in a similar position in Hungary earlier this month and claiming victory in Russia in February. The talented young driver again teams up with Szymon Gospodarczyk after working alongside Maciej Marton on the last few rallies in a second Toyota.Overdrive Racing’s CEO Jean-Marc Fortin said: “It has been very busy to get the cars ready for this important round of the championship in Poland. It’s a demanding event and one where we have a strong entry and a large team to co-ordinate. It has been a busy few weeks for everyone with the Silk Way Rally and Spain in July followed by Hungary and Poland in August.”The seven timed stages are centred around Dobra and Lubieszyn areas, and the military firing range at nearby Drawsko Pomorskie. The action gets underway with the ceremonial start on the scenic Lasztownia island and a timed Prologue stage of 7.08km on Friday evening from 18.00hrs.There will then two selective sections of around 215.90km apiece on Saturday (September 2) at the firing range from 08.15hrs and 13.45hrs, respectively.The remaining four timed sections take place on Sunday. There will be two passes through the 18.39km of the Krzekowo stage at 08.40hrs and 12.30hrs and a pair of runs through the 10.50km of Lubieszyn at 09.35hrs and 13.25hrs before the ceremonial finish in Szczecin from 14.30hrs. FIA WOrld CUp for CrossCountry Rallies standings1. Nasser Saleh al-Attiyah (QAT) 210pts 2. Jakub Przygonski (POL) 138pts3. Khalid al-Qassimi (ARE) 105pts4. Yasir Saeidan (SAU) 96pts 5. Aron Domzala (POL) 86pts6. Mohamed Abu Issa (QAT) 84pts7. Martin Prokop (CZE) 72pts 8. Miroslav Zapletal (CZE) 47pts9. Leeroy Poulter (ZAF) 42pts10. Mikko Hirvonen (FIN) 37pts