Dubai International Baja: official notice board

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Three women are currently competing in the Jordan Baja:

- Driver Dania Akeel (Can-Am Maverick, SSV category)
- Driver Maha Hamali (Can-Am Maverick, Challenger category)
- Co-driver Erika Mingozzi (SSV category)

Women of Cross-Country Rally

Jordan Baja, Stage 1 (FIM)

For many of the competitors in the bike category, Friday was a really difficult day. After several incidents on SS1A, after suffering injuries, Jordan's Abdallah Abu Aisheh (winner of yesterday's prologue), Kuwait's Abdullah Al-Shatti and Australia's Martin Chalmers could not finish the race.

The new race leader with a big advantage was Mohammed Al-Balooshi from the United Arab Emirates, who fully compensated for his not so successful result in the prologue. He is now ten minutes ahead of Lebanon's Rafic Eid, the veteran leader.

After Stage 1 (Moto)*
1. Al-Balooshi (KTM)
2. Eid (Gas Gas) +10:50.3
3. Al-Mogeera (KTM) +17:19.4
* - provisional results

After Stage 1 (Quad)*
1. Al-Sheibani (Yamaha)
2. Al-Atawi (Yamaha) +6:26.8
3. Al-Noumesi (Yamaha) +12:09.2
* - provisional results

Jordan Baja, Stage 1 (FIA, Ultimate)

Czech Miroslav Zapletal (Ford F150 Evo) had a difficult and controversial day. In the morning on SS1A he lost more than ten minutes and finished tenth overall, but on SS1B he was second and moved up to sixth position in the overall standings. Tomorrow, on the final day, he has the opportunity to further improve his result in the overall race classification.

Prologue (FIA, Challenger)
1. Zapletal/Pasek (Ford)

Mohammed Al Balooshi (ARE) #1 Yamaha YZ450, Moto category

🎤Hi, everyone. I just finished stage one of Jordan-Baha. It was a very tough stage and very long, 336 km. It was a lot of challenge with the road book. And unfortunately, two of our teammates are out due to crashes and some injuries to Abdallah Al-Shatti and Abdallah Al-Seba. Both Abdullahs are out and it's a mixed feeling for me. I'm not happy because they are injured in the hospital. Now we're going to go see them, how they're doing. I hope something minor. About my stage, it was good with the navigation, a few mistakes. I tried to keep it on the two-wheel and brought it home. I think now we have a decent gap for tomorrow.

Joao Ferreira (PRT) #400, Can-Am Maverick, Santag Racing, SSV category

🎤Hello, we have just finished our first stage here in Jordan. It was a super long day for us, 340 km of stage. We overtook a lot of cars. Filipe did an amazing job from the navigation side. We started 6th in the road. And like I said, we arrived 2nd on the road behind Dania. It was a clean run for us, we just finished the stage with a puncture but Filipe did an amazing job from the navigation, it was super super tricky.

We have to follow cap a lot of time without track. But ok, I enjoyed a lot the race, like I said it was my first time here in Jordan and the tracks, especially after the naturalization was like flat out all the time, very difficult navigation, the sandy tracks in the final part and a lot of stones that we couldn't see in the sand. But ok, it was a positive day for us, we won, that's the most important part.

Joao Dias (PRT) #403, Can-Am Maverick, Santag Racing Team, Challenger group

🎤Hello everyone. The first part of the Jordan Baja is now finished. A good day for us. We were leading overall when we had a problem with the radiator fan, which caused a slight delay. But still, it was a perfect day for the team. My teammate, João Ferreira, is in first place in the SSV category, and we are in second. So, P1 and P2, we couldn’t ask for more. I think it was a great day. Thank you for the support.

Eduard Pons (ESP) #300, Taurus T3 MAX, Nasser Racing, Challenger category

🎤Hi, Aqaba Park again here. Just finishing right now the Friday, SS1. Well, complicated, difficult track, mix of everything. Not too much dunes, but lots of stones and sandy roads. Unfortunately, around the kilometre 100 we had a puncture. One of our tyres in the back had a puncture and it was not an easy change because the spare wheel got stuck and we had problems to do the change of the wheel and we really lost some important time. Here we are, fourth overall, second on the World Cup. Still a lot to say tomorrow morning.

Jordan Baja, Stage 1 (FIA, Challenger)

In the lightweight prototype category, a hard and unpredictable battle continues. Khalid Al-Jafla from the United Arab Emirates (Taurus T3 Max) successfully attacked in the morning and won SS1A - this result was enough for him to remain the leader in the Challenger standings at the end of the first day of the race.

The Spaniard Eduardo Pons (Taurus T3 Max) moved up to second position and continues to fight for the leadership of the FIA World Baja Cup in his category. Third was Qatar's Rashid Al-Muhannadi (Taurus T3 Max), who also leads at the FIA Middle East Baja Cup round in the Challenger standings.

Unfortunately for QMMF Team, two crews out of three were unable to finish due to technical problems - first up was Khalifa Al-Attiyah on SS1A who encountered problems, while Abdulaziz Al-Kuwari stopped on SS1B.

After Stage 1 (FIA, Challenger)*
1. Al-Jafla/Rudnitski (Taurus)
2. Pons/Betriu (Taurus) +7:19.7
3. Al-Muhannadi/Gospodarczyk (Taurus) +10:42.0
4. Martínez/Lafuente (Can-Am) +17:35.9
5. Al-Harbi/Kuzmich (Can-Am) +27:20.7
* - provisional results

Jordan Baja, Stage 1 (FIA, SSV)

Here is the full domination of Portuguese crews on BRP Can-Am Maverick XRS T-RR from Santag Racing Team. João Ferreira is leading (won SS1B), second is João Dias (won SS1A, but later lost a few minutes). Both continue to realize a new strategy in the fight for the overall FIA World Baja Cup title.

Finishing third was Saudi Arabia's Dania Akeel (BRP Can-Am Maverick XRS T-RR), who has a great battle for the overall FIA Middle East Baja Cup title with Qatar's Ahmed Al-Kuwari (Yamaha YXZ1000R SS).

After Stage 1 (FIA, SSV)*
1. Ferreira/Palmeiro (BRP Can-Am)
2. Dias/Reis (BRP Can-Am) +3:08.2
3. Akeel/Delaunay (BRP Can-Am) +12:51.5
4. Álvarez/Panseri (BRP Can-Am) +13:30.5
5. Al-Kuwari Ahm./Sanz (Yamaha) +28:31.8
* - provisional results

Maha Hamali (SAU) #304 Can-Am Maverick, Challenger category

🎤Today we finished the first day of the Jordan Baja. The stage was nice and beautiful, and for a moment, I forgot that I was in Jordan because the terrain was similar to the Tabuk and Al Ula rallies. We were along the Wadi Rum area, which made it really beautiful. The scenery was breathtaking, and the mountains are so magnificent—truly a sight worth coming here for recovery and relaxation in this lovely weather. Hopefully, we'll have more time to enjoy it.

However, the stage was challenging, with many twists and turns that forced us to slow down, along with lots of rocks and punctures. So, as a stage, it wasn’t very easy, even visually. But thank God, we finished it safely. We're looking forward to the results, and hopefully, we can maintain the championship in first place. If not, we will try again in the upcoming races.

Rashid Al Muhannadi (QAT) #306 Taurus T3 Max, Nasser Racing, Challenger category

🎤Today we finished the first stage. We managed to overtake the cars and finished in fifth place overall and third place in our category. That's it for today, tomorrow in the second day, we’ll continue at the same level that we're at. The rally was difficult, but the stage was different with some sand in certain sections. But, thank God, we managed to finish at a good level, taking third place. Tomorrow we’ll maintain the same performance.

Amerigo Ventura (ITA) #402 Yamaha YXZ1000R, Quaddy Racing, SSV category

🎤Hello everybody, Amerigo and Erika from Baja Jordan. First special stage done. To be honest, not the result we expect and not the rhythm I'm used to keep. We had a puncture, then the Stella stopped working, so we had to switch to paper road book and many people overtook us. We had a hard time in the dust. So, we were able to arrive to the end. Let's see for tomorrow. For sure this race is new for me and even more for Erika.

We will try to improve and see what will happen.

What do you think about Jordan area, desert?

So the Jordanian desert I think is awesome. We saw landscape really amazing. We passed red dunes, rocky mountains, so we really touched every kind of condition but of course navigation was a little bit tricky so you always need to you can't look too much the amazing skyline you need to keep the eye on the track.

Abdulaziz Alkuwari (QAT) #305 Taurus T3 Max, Nasser Racing, Challenger category

🎤Hello, good evening. So we were unlucky today. We were leading the rally. Even in the first split in the second part of the stage, we were the fastest. But OK, we were unlucky because we had a high water temperature. So we had to stop. We decided to save the engine, not to break it. Hopefully they can fix it now. There was a small pipe broken, so most of the water of the radiator was out of the car.

Hopefully the engine is still working OK, so we can drive tomorrow, hopefully we can drive and get some experience, but we are very happy with our speed. We were very fast, but for sure we were very safe also in most of the places.

First part of the stage, the first 200 km, we caught some drivers which they didn't open for us, so we stuck a lot in their dust, but it's OK it's not okay to be honest it's not okay because you get angry in the car you are driving very fast and suddenly you delay or you are late because someone's dust you are faster than him but they don't want to open I don't want to say names but this is really bad I don't accept that because if someone catches me or faster than me for sure I will open the road but anyway we are happy the more or less 300 kilometers that we did today or more we were good leading the rally as I said. Hopefully we can drive tomorrow to learn the car more and get some experience. Thank you very much.

Ahmed Alkuwari (QAT) #404, Yamaha YXZ1000R Sport Shift, SSV category

🎤Good afternoon. Ahmed Al-Kuwari here, driver of 404 here in the Jordan Baha. Today we had the Wadi Rum stage, real Dakar stage, 350 kilometers. The terrain was that of a Dakar stage. And the stage, I was thinking, if Dakar came to Jordan, this stage should be done. Really, it was a beautiful stage. Yeah, that's about stage. We decided not to push today. We saw how rough it is. We didn't want to break the car and ruin our chances tomorrow. So today is the stage we got the points for second in the Middle East Championship on the stage. Tomorrow we try to push and maybe we get the stage win and the rally win.

Fernando Alvarez (ARG) #401 Can-Am Maverick, SSV category

🎤Well, we finished the first day of the Baja Jordan. We finished third in the category. The two Portuguese were in front of us, but anyway, we did a good job. Xavier did a really good job also. It was not easy, the navigation. In the last part, we had a puncture, so we stopped a little bit to push, a difference in about two minutes, something like that, Fereira in front of us so when after that we puncture and we decided just to finish taking care of the car for tomorrow so we will see tomorrow everything is open now we will see.

Nasser Alkuwari (QAT) #305 Taurus T3 Max, Nasser Racing, Challenger category

📹 Stage 1 Jordan Baja

Dania Akeel (SAU) Can-Am Maverick, Santag Racing, SSV category

🎤Okay, that's it. Stage one done of the Jordan Baja. I had a great time. Sebastian decided to open the stage last night when we were choosing positions and I questioned it, but he had a good logic to it. He shared with me his reasons and I agreed and we actually had a really good time. So, well, we had a small issue in the car which cost us probably between 10 and 15 minutes, I think. Something wrong with the power, with the fuel really, but they're working on it for tomorrow. We're in a good position for the points that we're here to hopefully collect. So I feel good. The scenery was amazing. The navigation was very full on, but I had a great time. Seb was amazing and it's nice to be to be in this car. It's really fun. And tomorrow, the idea and the goal is just to get to the finish line with the points that we need for the championship. So let's do it.

Ibrahim Almuhna (SAU) #406, Can-Am Maverick, SSV category