LOSAIL, Qatar: Qatar’s Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah, Dubai-based English rider Sam Sunderland and Chile’s Ignacio Casale emerged unscathed from the final 350.94km selective section of the Sealine Cross-Country Rally to confirm memorable victories in the car, motorcycle and quad categories at Losail on Friday.

The final stage was won by the rally runners-up, Yazeed Al-Rajhi, Pablo Quintanilla and Rafal Sonik, but they began the fifth section too far behind to realistically challenge for victory and the stage wins were minor consolations.

Al-Attiyah recorded a second outright win with Overdrive Racing and the Toyota Hilux in the space of four weeks and a fifth win in six years. The triumph marked a third successive win for his French navigator Matthieu Baumel and gives the entire team a comfortable lead in the FIA World Cup after three rounds. The X-raid Mini All4 Racing crew of Yazeed Al-Rajhi and Timo Gottschalk won the final stage and finished 12min 03sec behind the Toyota.

“It was a good day for us. This is an important win in Qatar,” said Al-Attiyah. “I am quite happy. It was good to control the race all the way. We had the speed if we needed it. After two races I have 120 points. Now we prepare ourselves for the smaller races. To win at home is fantastic.”

Chilean Quintanilla made Sunderland work mightily hard for the second biggest win of the talented young Englishman’s career. The Chilean started fifth on the road, passed three of his rivals and then caught Sunderland to halve the overnight deficit. Neither rider could afford the slightest mistake over the closing nervy kilometers and Sunderland held on to give KTM a fifth win in Qatar in six years by the margin of 9min 38sec.

“It was really good. It has been a lot of work over the last six months to come back after the broken femur,” said 27-year-old Sunderland. “I missed Dakar and sitting at home watching was really a tough time for me mentally and physically. I’m really happy. The team have been so supportive through all this time and I owe everything to them. It’s been a tough race, fighting with Pablo all week, and it’s not been easy. I knew he was going to catch me today. I could relax a bit and then we rode together to the finish.”

Quintanilla secured a comfortable second overall, Yamaha’s Helder Rodrigues rounded off the podium and Bolivia’s Juan Carlos Salvatierra and Husqvarna’s Pierre Alexander Renet were fourth and fifth. “I am quite happy with the race and the result,” said Quintanilla. “It’s an important race for the championship and this is good points at the end. It was a hard race with Sam and the navigation. I did a mistake, but these things can happen.”

Casale rode a superb race on his Yamaha Raptor 700 SE to clinch a crushing victory in the quad category and break Rafal Sonik’s stranglehold on success in Qatar. It marked the first victory on the Sealine event for a Yamaha of any kind and puts the Chilean back into contention for the FIM world title. His winning margin was 31min 49sec.

Casale said: “To come all the way from Chile and compete here was not easy, but I am delighted with the win. It was a very hard race and a great practice with the navigation for the Dakar.”

“Not my luck this year, because we had some technical problems in the beginning and then I was struggling,” said Sonik. “Last night we had to change the engine and since Julien (Villarrubia) crashed I was a little bit upset on my mind, because I had already experienced this kind of crash in Abu Dhabi two years ago. It was not an easy race, but credit to Ignacio for his performance and his victory.”

Al-Rajhi said: “We are happy. We pushed at the start until we catch Nasser and then I follow him to the finish. It was a very good fight. Other than the one day, we did a very good job.”

Behind Al-Rajhi, G-Energy Team Mini driver Vladimir Vasilyev rounded off the car podium in third overall, although the St. Petersburg-based driver was 1hr 11in 13sec behind Al-Attiyah. Kazakh Yuriy Sazonov finished an impressive fourth in the Mobilex Racing Team H3 and Jutta Kleinschmidt rounded off the top five.

“This has been a really enjoyable event, demanding, different and the stages were just the right length,” said Kleinschmidt. “It was a proper cross-country rally. It’s great to be back in the car and I hope that I can do some more events now. There is still work to do.”

Marek Dabrowski recovered from a roll in the middle of the week to snatch sixth in the second Toyota Hilux, but Ricardo Porém lost two places and finished seventh after delays in his Mini on the final stage. Chile’s Hernan Garces enjoyed an impressive Qatar debut in the DMAS South Racing Ford Ranger to finish eighth after Yerdan Shagirov’s H3 Evolution V fell foul of the final kilometers of the day.

Saudi’s Yasir Seaidan and French navigator Sébastien Delaunay survived two flat tires on the penultimate stage to press home their T2 advantage into the final day and snatch the FIA T2 World Cup lead after three rounds. The Saudi had won the T3 section at Sealine back in 2013 and finished a fine ninth this week.