MEDIA INFORMATION

Baja Aragon Spain

FIA World Cup for Cross-Country Rallies, round 6
July 24-26, 2015

For immediate release
Friday, July 24th, 2015

EMIL KHNEISSER MAKES SOLID START TO BAJA SPAIN ARAGON CHALLENGE IN NISSAN MIDDLE EAST-BACKED T2 PATROL

· Latvian Aldis Vilcans holds outright T2 lead after opening super special stage

TERUEL (SPAIN): Abu Dhabi-based Lebanese driver Emil Khneisser made a solid start to his challenge for honour in the T2 category at Baja Spain Aragon, round six of the FIA World Cup for Cross-Country Rallies, at the opening 5.06km super special stage, near Teruel, on Friday evening.

Running a Nissan Patrol with invaluable support from Nissan Middle East, Khneisser and his Russian co-driver Alexsei Kuzmich recorded the unofficial fifth quickest time in the T2 Championship section for series production cross-country vehicles and head into the next two days of punishing off-road rallying through some of Spain’s remotest terrain in confident mood.

Khneisser, who is a group training and product manager at Abu Dhabi’s Nissan dealer Al-Masaood Automobiles, began the opening stage seeded 37th on the road and lay just 16 points off the top of the rankings in the prestigious T2 World Championship and needs to stay in touch with or beat the Kazakh driver Denis Berezovskiy this weekend.

Latvian driver Aldis Vilcans set the T2 target time of 4min 54.1sec and neither of the Spaniards, Alberto Dorsch or Josep Sole, could match that time. Khneisser’s time of 5min 06.7sec gave him an unofficial fifth position in T2 heading into the weekend. Arch rival Denis Berezovskiy beat the Lebanese by a mere 2,4 seconds to slot into fourth.

Qatar’s Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah had set the overall quickest time of 4min 04.1sec to take the outright lead in the T1 category.

The longest of the three days of competition takes place on Saturday, when Khneisser and his Nissan Patrol will be put to the test over a 152.22km selective section between Calamocha and Calatayud and an even longer stage of 305.56km between Calatayud and Teruel in the afternoon.

Ends

Published On: 24 July 2015