Mexico City, April 29 (BNA): Bahrain Raid Xtreme reached the finale of the final episode of the World Rally-Raid Championship held in Mexico with more praise for Prodrive Hunter as Nasser Al-Attiyah took the lead in the title race.
While Sebastien Loeb and Fabien Lorquin have dropped to third in the championship after crashing out of the second leg in their BRX Prodrive Hunter, with two rounds remaining in Argentina and Morocco, the WRRC battle is far from over.
The final two rounds of last year’s championship brought back-to-back wins for the hunter, and Loeb knows he has the car to deliver the intended results this time around and give the BRX another big finish.
This was confirmed on the final day of the Sonora Rally, as Al-Attiyah took victory in his Toyota by 6 minutes and 22 seconds from Saudi Arabia’s Yazeed Al-Rajhi, who set the fastest time in the final stage to finish second in the championship behind the Qatari. .
Partner Team BRX Brazillian looked headed for a stage win in one of the two Prodrive Hunters as Christian Baumgart led from his brother Marcus at half way, before both got stuck in the dunes, denying each of the top spot. Ten overall finish.
Marcus Baumgart quickly shrugged this setback off saying: “For the first time in a Hunter and we were in the top three in the stages against world champions and rally champions. That’s very cool, and remember what I said on day one – this car is from another planet.” Starting from the final stage low down the order after their electrical problems the previous day, Guerlain Chicherit and Alex Winocq both managed to salvage the sixth-best time of the day, despite having to cut through clouds of dust created by the cars in front of them.
“Again, the car was really good because I know I have the right pace all the time without taking any risks and without having to push,” Chicheret said. “Overall, the result hurts because we restarted with penalties, but we still had the pace in Hunter and we’re not done yet.”
The BRX will now wait for Loeb’s co-pilot Lurquin to recover from the broken shoulder he suffered on his third leg in the dry riverbed, just 24 hours after his impressive stage win.
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