Al-Attiyah triumphs in Jordan rally

Manama: Qatar’s Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah eased his pace over the closing stages of the Jordan Rally yesterday, but the Qatari was still in inspired form and a whitewash of each of the 19 special stages was enough to give the Skoda Fabia R5 driver a staggering winning margin of 18 minutes 18.4 seconds.

It was his 10th victory in the Hashemite Kingdom and a 63rd in his FIA Middle East Rally Championship (MERC) career and was never really in doubt once eventual runner-up Abdulaziz Al-Kuwari left the road on the Friday afternoon, before clawing his way back from fifth to second place in a second Skoda Fabia R5.

The Qatari and French co-driver Matthieu Baumel rarely seemed to break sweat after a dominant weekend. “It was important that I came here with a focus to win the rally and claim the maximum 39 points for winning both legs and the event,” said Al-Attiyah, who now has a massive MERC series lead after three rounds.

“I was able to control the race from the very start and set my own pace. Whoever wants to compete outside in the World Championship needs to first beat Nasser Al-Attiyah in the Middle East!”

The event held in conjunction with the celebrations of 100 years since the Great Arab Revolt, it was fitting that two Jordanian drivers should be involved in the fight in the desert to decide the winner of MERC 2. Khaled Juma held all the aces in the pack at the start of the day, but Husam Salem returned with a vengeance and a rebuilt car and began to eat into his rival’s advantage throughout the morning.

Salem was closing fast on Juma when the latter’s Mitsubishi reached a real low point at the Baptism Site and spluttered to a halt in the water splash, the 17 minutes lost wrecking the local national championship’s podium dream and handing Salem the lead.

But Husam lost five minutes in the penultimate stage before retiring and leaving the door open for Abdullah Al-Kuwari, the Qatari duly confirming a 1-2-3 podium for Qater and the first All-Qatari podium outside Qatar in MERC history.

Khalid Al-Suwaidi overhauled Juma in the 17th stage to snatch fourth position after Salem’s late demise, while the Jordanian (Juma) managed to reach the finish in fifth after Kuwait’s Meshari Al-Thefiri withdrew three stages from the end with transmission issues.

Lebanon’s Rodolphe Asmar was sixth, Jordan’s Ihab Al-Shorafa finished seventh and Qatar’s Rashed Al-Nuami recovered from a second stage crash to collect points for eighth overall as the only finishers out of 15 cars.

Results:

After SS19 (unofficial): 1) Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah (Qat)/Matthieu Baumel (Fra) Skoda Fabia R5 (2 hours 42 minutes 02.2 seconds), 2) Abdulaziz Al-Kuwari (Qat)/Killian Duffy (Irl) Skoda Fabia R5 (3:00:20.6), 3) Abdullah Al-Kuwari (Qat)/Adel Hussein (Qat) Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X (3:07:40.9), 4) Khalid Al-Suwaidi (Qat)/Giovanni Bernacchini (Ita) Ford Fiesta R5 (3:21:14.5),  5) Khaled Juma (Jor)/Faris Al-Tal (Jor) Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VII (3:23:55.9).