Nasser Al – Attiyah soars to the top at the Cyprus Rally 2019 qualifying stage

Nasser Al - Attiyah, and his co-driver Matthieu Baumel, were fastest to the finish ling of the qualifying stage in their Volkswagen Polo R5, this morning at Geri, and will be the first to select their starting position at the Number Selection process, just before the ceremonial Start of the rally. With a time of 02: 04.874, Nasser was one and a half seconds faster than the second fastest crew of the Special Stage, which was none other than ERC champions, Alexey Lukyanuk and Alexey Arnautov, with their Citroen C3 R5. The first surprise of the qualifying stage was, third-fastest, Norbert Herczig and Ferencz Ramon with their VW Polo.

Last year's winners, Simos Galatariotis and Antonis Ioannou, brought their Fabia R5 to the stage finish in 02: 07.813, one second faster than European Rally leader, Chris Ingram. The grizzled rally veteran, Mikko Hirvonen,  displayed that he still has plenty of speed, claiming the sixth fastest time of the qualifying stage, just ahead of, third in the ERC championship standings, Lukasz Habaj.

The Austrian crew of Mayr-Melnhof and Welsershelmb were eighth fastest, with the Chilean crew of Fernandez and Coronado coming in at ninth. Al-Kuwari and Clark completed the top ten of the Qualifying Stage, in their Skoda Fabia R5.

The Crews have already returned to Nicosia, and to the Service Park, with ERC priority crews gathering at the Journalists Home, and depending on their qualifying sage time, they will have the chance to select the number in which they will drive up the ramp during the ceremonial start of the rally, and of course, the stages of the first day of the event. The start will take place on the beachfront of Foinikoudes in Larnaca, at 19:30, with the action beginning tomorrow morning with the Politiko special stage at 09:43 in the morning.

Select quotes:

Nasser Al-Attiyah: We've been pushing because we know the starting position in this rally is very important. The car works well without any problems.

Alexey Lukyanuk: It was a bit worse than our test in the morning. We only had one test pass, but it was good, the car is fine.

Norbert Herczig: Everything was OK, we touched one of the chicanes but no serious damage was done. We look forward to the rally.

Chris Ingram: Incredible to be here, massive thanks to everyone who made it possible for us to be here. We had so much fun, the stage was tidy. We need to get through this rally.

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