BURAIDAH: Yazeed Al-Rajhi, Mohammed Al-Balooshi and Haitham Al-Tuwaijri extended their advantages in the car, motorcycle and quad categories after the Ash Shimasiyah desert stage of 186 km at Rally Qassim Toyota 2023 on Friday morning.
After winning the Prologue on Thursday afternoon, Al-Rajhi and his German co-driver Timo Gottschalk opted to start the first of two desert stages from 10th on the road, and the Saudi used that starting position to full advantage to win the day’s test in his Overdrive Racing Toyota Hilux and extend his lead to 2 minutes 41 seconds.
Al-Rajhi said: “It was a good stage for us. I drive well and Timo did a great job with no mistakes. We had a clean run and we have a good gap and, I think for tomorrow, we take it easy.” Toyota Gazoo Racing’s Lucas Moraes and Armand Monleon began the stage from ninth on the road.
The Brazilian was able to record the second quickest time to maintain a cushion of 7 minutes 4 seconds over third-placed Saleh Alabdulali and co-driver Mohammed Al-Naim in a Yazeed Racing-backed Toyota.