Al-Attiyah, Al-Rajhi to resume rivalry in Saudi Arabia

Detailed summary

Jeddah: Motorsport resumes in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia this weekend with the Jeddah Baja Toyota Rally, round two of the increasingly popular ...

Jeddah: Motorsport resumes in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia this weekend with the Jeddah Baja Toyota Rally, round two of the increasingly-popular Saudi Toyota Rally Championship.

The three-day second round of Saudi Arabia’s premier all-terrain series is based at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit (JCC) and has attracted a field of 22 cars, nine motorcycles and five quads. Action gets underway with a Prologue of 10km from 13.25hrs on Thursday afternoon.

Competitors will then tackle two selective sections of 74.50km and 85.53km tomorrow and an 82.57km stage to bring the action to a close on Saturday.

Six-time event winner Yazeed Al Rajhi (2014-15 and 2022-25) is attempting to retain his Saudi Toyota Rally Championship title in an Over drive Racing Toyota Hilux GR.

But the Riyadh-based driver faces a fierce challenge on this occasion from Qatar’s six time Dakar Rally winner Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah. The Qatari narrowly got the better of Al-Rajhi at the opening Saudi Baja round in late January and holds a slender lead in the Drivers’ Championship to take to the final two rounds in Jeddah and Al-Qassim next month.

Al-Attiyah has entered the event with French navigator Max Delfino in a bid to wrest the title from Al-Rajhi’s clutches for the first time. He drives a two-wheel drive Optimus MD with which he won the recent FIA Middle East Baja Cup.

The remainder of the Ultimate field is dominated by Nissans in the hands of Saudi drivers, including Fahad Al-Marmass, Faris Khalaf Al-Moshna, Mohammed Al-Tuwaijri and Khalaf Joan Al-Shammeri. Saleh Al-Saif has won the Challenger title on three of the four occasions it has been a part of the Jeddah event and he returns to defend his title in a G Rally Team OT3.

Dania Akeel and Sébastien Delaunay finished third overall at the opening round in a Toyota Hilux GR and are also looking to finish on the top step of the podium.

They will compete in the Challenger category with a Taurus T3 Max.

Opening of the article, excerpted from The Peninsula. To read the rest, open the article on the publisher's site.