Al Attiyah sets early pace at Jeddah Baja Toyota Rally

Qatar’s Nasser Saleh Al Attiyah and his French navigator Max Delfino snatched the lead at the Jeddah Baja Toyota Rally after the opening desert stage on Friday morning.

The rear-wheel drive Optimus MD crew finished the demanding morning’s action 1min 07.8sec in front of local rival Yazeed Al Rajhi and his German navigator Dennis Zenz in their Overdrive Toyota Hilux.

Emirati rider Mohammed Al Balooshi and quad entrant Haitham Al Tuwaijri extended their advantages in the motorcycle and quad categories on a day where Ahmed Olfat retired his KTM from the two-wheel category on this second round of the 2026 Saudi Toyota Rally Championship.

Second-placed Al Rajhi said: “Today was not easy. After the start we lost some time. The road was not clear. We lost a few seconds in this area and then gained some time back in the second part. I think the first 5km was difficult navigation and not easy to find the correct road.”

Saleh Al Saif and Albert Veliamovic continued to get the better of Challenger class rivals, Dania Akeel and Sébastien Delaunay, and strengthened their grip on third place to 2min 16.9sec in a G Rally Team OT3. Khalaf Joan Al Shammeri and Mashal Saleh Al Shammeri rounded off the top five in a Nissan Patrol.

Maha Al Hamali was locked in a battle with Hamad Al Harbi for honours in the SSV class and the Saudi was able to fend off her fellow Can-Am driver to hold sixth place, 3min 03.6sec ahead of Harbi and his navigator Faisal Al Suwayh.

Abdulaziz Al Yaeesh and Omar Al Lahim had missed Thursday’s Prologue in their Isuzu D-Max but leapt into top spot in the Stock category with the 11th quickest time on the opening stage. Mohammed Al Asiri failed to finish the stage and was handed a notional penalty time.

Emirati Mohammed Al Balooshi added stage one success to his win on the Prologue to extend his lead over brother Sultan to 6min 13.3sec in the motorcycle category.

Dominic Wells came home in a distant third on his Yamaha, with Ibrahim Al Jaralla and Abdullah Al Jahdali rounding off the motorcycle top five. Al Jaralla was handed a 15-minute time penalty before the restart for a time card offence on Thursday but climbed to fourth in the two-wheel class after a strong stage performance.