Qatar’s Nasser Al Attiyah and his co-driver French Mathieu Baumel had a sizzling start to their second round FIA Wysoka Grzęda Baja Poland 2020 Cross-Country World Cup campaign on Friday topping the first stages. The Qatari-French combine, however, were forced to retire in the 3rd Super Stage on Saturday finishing eighth to be placed overall sixth.
The biggest stars of cross-country rallies came to Szczecin – returning to the competition after more than a six-month break.
Al Attiyah prevailed in the first seven kilometers of competition with a time of 7m22.3s. It was a stage that was dominated by the mud and the technical demands of the riders, so as not to fall into any of the traps caused by the complicated state of the terrain.
Locals Holowzyc and Maluszynski completed the top 3 of the day with their Mini 4×4.
Al Attiyah managed to leave behind a batch of local drivers led by Krzysztof Hollowzyc (Mini), followed by Michal Maluszynski (Mini) and Jakub Przygonski (Toyota), all less than 20 seconds behind.
“I am glad that I am at Wysoka Grzęda Baja Poland, because I stayed at home for eight months. Thank you PZM for inviting me to this rally. This is a very important start for me. We want to have fun here, but our goal is to win.
“Of course, the stakes are very strong. Holowczyc is one of the biggest rivals, but we came here to win,” Attiyah had said after Friday’s stage.
On Saturday though, the trio of favorites, and also the three fastest drivers after two special stages - Krzysztof Hołowczyc, Nasser Al Attiyah and Kuba Przygonski, lost the chances of winning the most important motorsport event in 2020 in Poland.
The military training ground in Drawsko Pomorskie turned out to be an incredible challenge. The downpour that passed over the military base in the morning, and then the rain every now and then changed the route from sandy to muddy.
Driving technique was crucial, as well as skilfully driving through slippery turns and avoiding unnecessary risk. 172.31 km special stage had to be covered twice.
The cars were put to the toughest test. All drivers in Hilux had a problem with the steaming windshield. A flooded engine in the Ford Raptor RS Cross Country took the chance of a more than decent result from Martin Prokop and Viktor Chytka. Technical problems also affected the biggest favorites.
Clogged filters and the threat of a serious engine failure forced the Nasser Al Attiyah and Mathieu Baumel (Toyota Hilux) to retire in the third special stage, after taking second place after two special stages.
On the second run, Krzysztof Hołowczyc, the leader of the rally, had to retire after his Mini broke down, and the fierce attacker Kuba Przygonski lost the wheel in his Toyota and spent over 40 minutes on repair.
Frenchman Stephane Peterhansel came to Wysoka Grzęda Baja Poland with a new pilot, Edouard Boulanger, and he started the Mini All4Racing, which was already several years old, and its performance cannot be compared to the latest Dakar prototypes. But the 13-time winner of the Dakar Rally used his amazing experience, took advantage of his rivals’ bad luck and after two runs of the training ground in Drawsko Pomorskie, he became the leader of the rally with a lead of just over 14 minutes over the Ten Brinke / Colsoul duo in Toyota Hilux. Third place at the end of the day for the Małuszyński duo, who are nearly 25 minutes behind the leader.
The fastest time in the UTV vehicle has the Aron Domżała / Szymon Gospodarczyk (Can-Am X3) duo, who are fourth in the general classification, and Valtr, Valtr and Kaplanek (IVECO Powerstar 6400) are the fastest trucks. As part of MPRB, Maciej Giemza (Husqvarna) is the leader in the motorcyclist category, Marcin Wilkołek (Polaris) is the fastest competitor on a quad with four-wheel drive, and Kamil Wiśniewski (Yamaha) is in the lead in the quad category with two-wheel drive.
On Sunday, the competition will take place at a distance of almost 54 km on two special stages of Lubieszyn-Dobra and Dobra-Szczecin. Peterhansel and Boulanger seem to be the main contenders for victory, their first in the Polish round of the FIA World Cup.
“I was very surprised that we finished the third stage in first place, especially since I wasn’t pushing hard. I saw the crews stopping. We didn’t have it easy either due to problems with the car. Therefore, we drove the last 40 km of the stage very gently,” said Peterhansel.
Stage 3 provisional results: 1- S. Peterhansel, 2- Ten Brinke (+14m16), 3- Maluszynski (+24m57), 4- Domzala (1° T4) (+25m26), 5- Gryazin (1° T3) (+35m46), 6- Przygonski (+39m42), 7- Al Attiyah (+2h32m), 8- Holowczyc (+2h49m), 9- Prokop (+3h18m), 10- Patrycja Brochocka (T2).
