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

The rear-wheel drive Optimus MD crew finished the demanding morning’s action one minute and 7.8 seconds in front of Saudi’s 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 in this second round of the 2026 Saudi Toyota Rally Championship.

The Baja is organized by the Saudi Automobile and Motorcycle Federation in conjunction with the Ministry of Sport and official partner Jameel Motorsport. Additional support comes from Toyota, Lexonz and Brandship. It is run under the supervision of SAMF’s chairman, Prince Khalid bin Sultan Al-Abdullah Al-Faisal.

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 were difficult navigation and not easy to find the correct road.”

Saleh Al-Saif and Albert Veliamovič continued to get the better of Challenger class rivals Dania Akeel and Sébastien Delaunay, and widened the gap between third and fourth place to 2:16.9 in their G Rally Team OT3. Khalaf Joan Al-Shammeri and Mashal Saleh Al-Shammeri rounded off the top five in their Nissan Patrol. 

Maha Al-Hamali was locked in a battle with Hamad Al-Harbi for honors in the SSV class and the Saudi was able to fend off her fellow Can-Am driver to hold sixth place, 3:03.6 ahead of Al-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 leaped 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 rider Mohammed Al-Balooshi added stage one success to his win in the prologue to extend his lead over brother Sultan to 6:13.3 in the motorcycle category. 

Dominic Wells came home a distant third on his Yamaha, with Ibrahim Al-Jaralla and Abdullah Al-Jahdali rounding off the 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. 

Yamaha’s Haitham Al-Tuwaijri increased his advantage over CF Moto C Force 1000 rider Badr Al-Hamdan to more than 14 minutes in the quad category as he chases a fourth win in five years in Jeddah. Abdulrahman Alabdullatif and Yassin Mahmoud Al-Hamad maintained third and fourth positions.

On Saturday, the event concludes with a single selective section of 82.57km before the return to the Jeddah Corniche Circuit for the ceremonial finish.