Al Attiyah Extends Silk Way Rally Lead

Ulan Bator, July 09 (QNA) - Qatari champion Nasser Saleh Al Attiyah extended his lead on the Silk Way Rally 2019 in its ninth edition, after winning the first place in the third stage in Mongolia. The rally is held in Russia, Mongolia, China and it is considered as the most difficult rally with a total distance of 5000 km and enjoys a large participation of cars, motorcycles and trucks. The second stage of the revised rally ran for 207.67km in a day’s route of 409.34km between Baikalsk and the night halt in Ulan-Ude. It ran on gravel tracks through a mountain pass, taiga forests and across various bridges and spectacular Siberian terrain to finish on the steppes plateau. Al Attiyah carded a time of 2hrs 15min 51sec for the varied special to beat second-placed Chinese driver Lui Kun by 7min 40sec. Al Attiyah said on this occasion: "I pushed hard on the first stage to gain the advantage, despite the muddy conditions and we found a good pace today and now have a comfortable lead to manage over the coming days. There is a long way to go over many difficult and varied stages." (QNA)