Baja Aragon: Abdel Abdulla with Jean-Mi Polato

Abdel Abdulla © DR

Qatar’s Adel Abdulla has renewed his contract with Nissan Qatar and will drive a Nissan Patrol Y62 at this weekend’s Baja Aragón Teruel, round seven of the FIA World Cup for Cross-Country Rallies, and on the subsequent four rounds of the prestigious series.

 

The Doha-based driver currently holds second position in the T2 category for series production cross-country vehicles and closed the gap on rival Ahmed Al-Shegawi to 23 points at the recent Italian Baja.

The QX Rally Team driver has also confirmed that personal commitments mean that Nasser Al-Kuwari will not feature as his navigator for the rest of the season and Adel is hopeful that French navigator Jean-Michel Polato, who partnered him in Italy and here in Spain, will be able to continue for the remainder of the T2 campaign.

Adel said: « I am delighted to announce that I have renewed my contract with Nissan for a third year as a sporting ambassador and as the official driver for Nissan Qatar. I will continue the rest of the season, the remaining five rounds, with my Nissan Patrol Y62.
« I am also running with a new team from Spain. I hope that we can do a good job as a team and we can be successful for the rest of the year. Last year, I won the FIA Trophy here in the T2 and the year before I won the T2 category. This race is very important for me. It is one of the famous races in Europe. It is long and tough.
« This year I had many mechanical problems with the cars I drove. I lost valuable points as a result. We are 23 points behind the leader and it will not be difficult to take these points.
« I would like to thank Hisham Saleh Al-Mana, the owner of Nissan Qatar, for his support. This is a big national company. I also thank the Qatar Motor and Motorcycle Federation (QMMF) and Ooredoo Qatar for their ongoing support. »

The competitive action gets underway with a timed 13.46km super special stage on Friday evening.

The bulk of the 521.42km of action takes place on revised stages on Saturday (July 21) and Sunday (July 22). There are two selective sections of 227.51km and 154.85km on Saturday and one of 125.60km on Sunday before the podium ceremony in Teruel later in the afternoon.

FIA World Cup for Cross-Country Rallies – T2 standings after round 6:
1. Ahmed Al-Shegawi (SAU), 140 points ; 2. Adel Abdulla (QAT), 117 pts ; 3. Yuliya Khegay-Migunova (RUS), 42 pts ; 4. Marat Abykayev (KAZ), 36 pts ; 5. Alexey Titov (RUS), 25 pts…

Neil Perkins,

PUBLICITÉ