Team X-Raid's Leonid Novitskiy put in another dominant display to extended his overall lead in the Cars category of the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge yesterday.
The Russian now has a lead of 45 mins 01 secs over Laurent Rosso after the second leg of the event had been completed last night.
The 305km stage threw in another bout of hot, heavy weather and mixed fortunes in what is the opening round of the season-opening round of the FIA Cross-Country Rallies World Cup and the FIM Cross-Country Rallies World Championship.
Novitskiy, who is out to retain the title for Team X-Raid, continued to move further ahead as all his rivals toiled in the heat.
With Novitskiy flying through the various passage controls, Mark Powell, Rosso, Abdulla Al Heiraz and Abdulbari Bin Sougat began swapping places in a contest that matched the rising temperatures around the Tal Moreeb area.
Just after the first service stage, Al Heiraz experienced a gearbox problem that pulled him from the day's action.
The UAE's Yahya Al Helei and his co-driver protégé and son, Mansour, climbed several places in a late surge but missed the service area and continued back to the Bivouac by road.
Meanwhile, the Moto category remains unchanged with Marc Coma and Francesco Lopez at the top of the times and looking likely to continue their duel for the overall honours right down until the event climaxes on Thursday with the final stage.
Spain's Coma retained the lead on his factory KTM 690 R. The South African, Sean Gaugain, who finished seventh on the first day, stormed through the first three stages to finish the day third overall on his Honda CRF 450X.
Gaugain's rival, the Briton James West, had a disappointing day on his KTM 690 to end the day in fourth overall, despite regular over-heating issues throughout the day.
The Open Class category saw Coma remain top of the table with West falling further behind on time but holding on to second place.
The KTM UAE ADCB Racing Team owner, Tim Trenker, sits in third place.
In the Quad category, Sebastian Husseini and Obaid Echtibi rode their machines to the limit making for a fine contest between Suzuki and Honda.
The biggest rise of the day saw Poland's Sonik Rafal move up 21 places from his overnight finish to pose a serious challenge for third place. The Emirati, Mohammed Al Shamsi, spent a second disappointing day struggling with technical issues.
Today's third leg starts and finishes in Moreeb.
@Email:sports@thenational.ae
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The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
How green is the expo nursery?
Some 400,000 shrubs and 13,000 trees in the on-site nursery
An additional 450,000 shrubs and 4,000 trees to be delivered in the months leading up to the expo
Ghaf, date palm, acacia arabica, acacia tortilis, vitex or sage, techoma and the salvadora are just some heat tolerant native plants in the nursery
Approximately 340 species of shrubs and trees selected for diverse landscape
The nursery team works exclusively with organic fertilisers and pesticides
All shrubs and trees supplied by Dubai Municipality
Most sourced from farms, nurseries across the country
Plants and trees are re-potted when they arrive at nursery to give them room to grow
Some mature trees are in open areas or planted within the expo site
Green waste is recycled as compost
Treated sewage effluent supplied by Dubai Municipality is used to meet the majority of the nursery’s irrigation needs
Construction workforce peaked at 40,000 workers
About 65,000 people have signed up to volunteer
Main themes of expo is ‘Connecting Minds, Creating the Future’ and three subthemes of opportunity, mobility and sustainability.
Expo 2020 Dubai to open in October 2020 and run for six months
How to join and use Abu Dhabi’s public libraries
• There are six libraries in Abu Dhabi emirate run by the Department of Culture and Tourism, including one in Al Ain and Al Dhafra.
• Libraries are free to visit and visitors can consult books, use online resources and study there. Most are open from 8am to 8pm on weekdays, closed on Fridays and have variable hours on Saturdays, except for Qasr Al Watan which is open from 10am to 8pm every day.
• In order to borrow books, visitors must join the service by providing a passport photograph, Emirates ID and a refundable deposit of Dh400. Members can borrow five books for three weeks, all of which are renewable up to two times online.
• If users do not wish to pay the fee, they can still use the library’s electronic resources for free by simply registering on the website. Once registered, a username and password is provided, allowing remote access.
• For more information visit the library network's website.
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Formula Middle East Calendar (Formula Regional and Formula 4)
Round 1: January 17-19, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 2: January 22-23, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 3: February 7-9, Dubai Autodrome – Dubai
Round 4: February 14-16, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 5: February 25-27, Jeddah Corniche Circuit – Saudi Arabia
Emergency
Director: Kangana Ranaut
Stars: Kangana Ranaut, Anupam Kher, Shreyas Talpade, Milind Soman, Mahima Chaudhry
Rating: 2/5
Election pledges on migration
CDU: "Now is the time to control the German borders and enforce strict border rejections"
SPD: "Border closures and blanket rejections at internal borders contradict the spirit of a common area of freedom"
Brief scores:
Toss: Nepal, chose to field
UAE 153-6: Shaiman (59), Usman (30); Regmi 2-23
Nepal 132-7: Jora 53 not out; Zahoor 2-17
Result: UAE won by 21 runs
Series: UAE lead 1-0
Skewed figures
In the village of Mevagissey in southwest England the housing stock has doubled in the last century while the number of residents is half the historic high. The village's Neighbourhood Development Plan states that 26% of homes are holiday retreats. Prices are high, averaging around £300,000, £50,000 more than the Cornish average of £250,000. The local average wage is £15,458.
