Al-Attiyah happy to run first on the road

Nasser Al-Attiyah insists he is not concerned about starting first on the road on the second section of the opening leg of Rally Argentina today.

The Qatari driver, who is making his Intercontinental Rally Challenge debut this weekend, will be the first driver to tackle Saturday’s seven special stages, starting with the 16.57-kilometre Las Bajadas-Villa del Dique stage at 08:13hrs local time.

“I think it’s not bad starting first car because it will be clear and there is a lot of grip because it’s already been raining around the rally route,” said Al-Attiyah, who will drive a René Georges Rally Sport-run Škoda Fabia Super 2000. “But we understand being the first car is not easy for braking and turning. But it’s not a new challenge for me and I am quite happy. I will just try to do my best tomorrow and we will push and see what position we are in.”

Overnight leader Kris Meeke is fourth on the road, one place behind Argentine driver Federico Villagra. The eight-time Argentine champion’s M-Sport Ford Fiesta S2000 has been given a clean bill of health after concerns of a possible gearbox glitch at the end of Friday’s opening superspecial. The problem was traced to an onboard camera wire being close to the exhaust tunnel, which caused a small amount of smoke.

The top 10 starting order for Saturday is as follows:

1 Nasser Al-Attiyah
2 Juho Hänninen
3 Guy Wilks
4 Federico Villagra
5 Kris Meeke
6 Gabriel Pozzo
7 Claudio Menzi
8 Jan Kopecký
9 Nicolás Madero
10 Marcos Ligato