Al Attiyah, McInnes top times on Jordan Baja Prologue

AQABA: A flying Nasser Saleh Al Attiyah and British rider Alex McInnes topped the times in the car and motorcycle categories on the 12.78km Aseza Prol...

AQABA: A flying Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah and British rider Alex McInnes topped the times in the car and motorcycle categories on the 12.78km Aseza Prologue stage that kickstarted the weekend’s off-road action at the Jordan Baja yesterday.

The short desert stage was held near the village of Rahmeh to the north of Aqaba and determined the starting order for the first of the stages through Wadi Rum on Friday.

Al-Attiyah had initially entered the event with Fabian Lurquin but Max Delfino returned as his navigator for a second time in an MD Optimus Buggy. The Qatari stormed to the quickest time in the car category by 36 seconds.

Toyota Gazoo Racing’s Saood Variawa is competing in Jordan for the first time with French navigator François Cazalet. The South African was second quickest.

Defending regional Baja champion Dania Akeel was the first into the stage in her Toyota Hilux and carded the target time of 9min 57.1sec. That put the Saudi down in seventh position.