ALULA: The winners of last year’s Rally Jameel, team Sandstorm Express featuring Ewelina Chlebowska of Poland and co-driver Hanna Riehle of Germany, topped the leaderboard of this year’s event on Wednesday at the end of the second leg, from AlUla to Umluj, with 2247.733 points.
The leaders after the first leg, Dania Akeel from Saudi Arabia and co-driver Syndiely Wade from Senegal, dropped into second spot with on 2239.398 points, with two stages left to go.
Chlebowska and Riehle’s Toyota FJ cruiser crossed the finish line after completing a clean sweep of stage wins on Wednesday morning.
Last year’s winners, Ewelina Chlebowska of Poland and Hanna Riehle of Germany posted the highest points with 2247.733 in the second stage (AlUla -Umluj) of Rally Jameel 2024, as the winner of first stage Dania Akeel team fell to second. (Supplied)
“Yeah, feeling great to be honest,” Chlebowska said. “It was actually a hard stage. Of course, less stones and rocks compared to yesterday, but still very hard. But we managed. It felt good to finally lead.”
“Looking forward to the next couple days and going to have some fun,” Riehle added.
Akeel said: “It was a nice rally and we enjoyed it a lot. Still, we have two stages to go and we will try to do our best. Thanks to my co-driver, Syndiely Wade; she did a fantastic job.”
The second stage also featured another solid performance from Saudi driver Maha Al-Hamali and American co-driver Eleanor Coker, who are in third place in the overall rankings with 2233. 624 points.
“This was a good result,” Al-Hamali said. “It was not an easy race and we didn’t want to take any risks. There were a lot of problems for a lot of people but we picked up a lot of points. We will now target to push and attack at the next stages in Umluj and Yanbu.”
