ZAMBIA International Rally – Saturday 17^th July 2010 - 21h30

MOHAMMED Essa has established a much healthier lead in the 32nd Zambia International Rally breaking further away from the chasing pack with a 16 seconds cushion.
The 21-year-old Essa who led with just a second after the twice run super special stage on Friday at the Lusaka Motor Club in the Showgrounds has now amassed a 16 seconds lead with a time of 1:49:18 seconds.
The son of former driver Khalid Essa used some youth exuberance flying over jumps and negotiating bends with abandoned ease as the Chisamba natives applauded.
Essa had some problems including having his passage blocked on the fourth stage in Chaloshi area but still came out unscathed to take a commanding lead.
“Yesterday we were leading by a second but today it has gone to more than 10 seconds, this shows that we are doing fine,” he said. Essa said he was waiting for the organisers to take action bout the blocked road he found in the fourth stage after the Zero car took a wrong route.
“Tomorrow (today) I want to push harder, I think this is my year to win the Zambia International rally, with due respect to the other crews,” he said.
Defending champion Muna Singh has sneaked into second position taking over from African champion, Zimbabwean Jamie Whyte who has been relegated into third position.
Muna who posted a timing of 1:49:34 said he broke one of his windows and had to contend with some dust in the car but is still hopeful of overturning the tables.
The former two-time African champion who won last year’s championship on the last day after trailing Essa promised to repeat the feat.
“So far so good, we didn’t have too many problems like we had on Friday. Some branches on the way broke our window but everything is fine,” he said.
Whyte who was in second position after the spectator stage with just a second behind the Zambian youngster dropped to 47 points and into third place.
The veteran Zimbabwean thwarted any questions from the media as he was personaly involved in the service of his car after the first day proceedings came to a close.
Another Zambian Paul Monge finished fourth on 1:55:07 to close the top four competitive bracket ahead of Kenny ‘Ntengo mubuli’ Mukosa. Rwandan Giancarlo Davite was the first major casualty after tumbling out in the second stage of the day.
The Rwanda champion was joined on the casualty list by Ashish Patel, Geoffrey Chulu, Jassy Singh and Dani Beaini who entered the super rally after being slapped with five minute penalty plus the fastest stage time of 1:33 recorded by Essa on the second run of Friday’s super special spectator stage.
Today the rally takes four stages within the Fringilla Farm block before the crews head for the finish at the Intercontinental Hotel in Lusaka.

Classified results
Essa 1:49:18
Muna 1:49:34
Whyte 1:50:05
Monge 1:55:07
Mukosa 2:05:19
Ticklay 2:20:07