Nissan’s Adel Hussein Abdulla did his quest for glory in the FIA T2 World Championship no harm at all by holding third position in the category after two special stages of the Hungarian Baja, round six of the FIA World Cup for Cross-Country Rallies, yesterday.
The Qatari driver and French navigator Jean-Michel Polato headed into the remaining two stages of the event knowing that they needed to overhaul Saudi Arabia’s Yasir Saeidan and Poland’s Mariusz Wiatr to snatch the outright championship lead and take outright victory in the three-day Veszprém-based event.
Adel Hussein, who is currently just two points behind the leader of T2 in the points’ standings, is running a Nissan Patrol with support from Nissan Middle East and the Qatar Motor and Motorcycle Federation (QMMF) on one of the most demanding rounds of the European Baja calendar.
“The car stopped for three minutes inside the stage and we lost time and that has dropped us to third in T2,” said the Doha-based driver. “It was a tiny problem with the cable on the fuel pump. Saying that, it is still early days in the rally and we are still determined to fight for the win.”
The Qatari carded a time of 9min 11sec through the opening 10.31km super special stage that followed the official start in Veszprém’s Old Town Square on Friday evening. That impressive time catapulted the Qatari 15 seconds in front of his T2 series leading rival and well clear of the remainder of his rivals in the category for FIA Series Production Cross-Country vehicles.
The meat of the action got underway yesterday morning with the first of two runs through a demanding selective section of 170.24km that wound its way through some of the remotest Hungarian countryside. Adel Hussein passed one of the official split time checkpoints in 1hr 50min 09sec and went on to finish the special in a time of 2hrs 14min 57sec. That put him just 4min 27sec behind Saudi Arabia’s Yasir Saeidan at the midday break.
Mariusz Wiatr slotted into second position and Adel Hussein was closely followed by the Polish driver Jaroslaw Kazberuk in fourth. Qatar’s Mohammed al-Harqan held fifth place.
Teams will tackle a fourth and final stage of 170.72km today morning.

Positions after SS2 (T2 class)
1. Yasir Saeidan (SAU)/Alexei Kuzmich (RUS) Toyota Land Cruiser 200
2hr 19min 41sec
2. Mariusz Wiatr (POL)/Artur Szczygel (POL) Mitsubishi Pajero 2hr 21min 09sec
3. Adel Hussein Abdulla (QAT)/Jean-Michel Polato (FRA) Nissan Patrol
2hr 24min 08sec
4. Jaroslaw Kazberuk (POL)/Robin Szustkowski (POL) Ford Raptor
2hr 24min 27sec
5. Mohamed al-Harqan (QAT)/Nasser al-Kuwari(QAT) Toyota Land Cruiser
2hr 26min 27sec
6. Tomasz Piec (POL)/Daniel Dymurski (POL) Nissan Navara 2hr 26min 45sec