Al Attiyah earns his 17th Jordan Rally triumph
Dead Sea
Qatar's Nasser Saleh Al Attiyah won all but one of the 12 gravel special stages on his way to a comfortable 17th victory in the Jordan Rally on Saturday, The success took the iconic Skoda Fabia RS driver to a record 90th career MERC rally win, as he closes in on an unprecedented 20th regional title since 2003. The new partnership with his Spanish co-driver Candido Carrera has a 100% winning record with the duo now taking victories at the opening four rounds of this year's FIA Middle East Rally Championship in Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and now Jordan.
Al Attiyah said, 'I am so happy to win again here in Jordan for the 17th time. This means a lot to me. This year we have won every rally so far. It feels like a good year, leading the Middle East Championship and leading the W2RC. For this rally, I will give it 10 out of 10. Today, we controlled the pace and tried to make a gap in case we had a puncture.'
Abdullah Al Rawahi and his Jordanian co-driver Ata Al Hmoud maintained the pressure on the Qatari throughout day one but a time-consuming puncture delayed the Omani on Saturday's opening Panorama stage and a second issue on stage 10 proved too much for the 2023 regional champion. He finished second overall.
Al Rawahi said: 'It was a long two days for us. The first day was quite good, especially with the pace and we were very close to Nasser. Unfortunately, today we had some punctures and we lost some time. Overall, we are very happy with our performance. It has been the closest we have been to him in the battle.
'We don't really have enough seat time in the car. After this rally I have three months off not really driving my car. My car is also an older generation and there is experience difference between me and Nasser. That is why it is good that he is in the championship. He helps us to push and get closer to him. It is still good. We wanted to win but we are still happy.'
Qatar's Abdulaziz Al Kuwari and his Irish co-driver Lorcan Moore tried different set-ups with their Citroen C3 but struggled to match the pace of the leading duo on this occasion. They did enough to round off the podium places.
Rakan Al Rashed's main target was to finish the event and the Saudi again teamed up with Portugal's Hugo Magalhaes in a Jameel Motorsport Toyota GR Yaris. Cruelly, his Yaris sustained substantial damage after an accident on the penultimate stage he was forced out. Lebanese driver Bassel Abu Hamdan and his co-driver Firas Elias benefitted from his demise to round off the top four in a Skoda Fabia.
Oman's Abdullah Al Zubair led the MERC2 field from start-to-finish with co-driver Taha Al Tadjali to strengthen his push for the overall title. Fellow countryman Zakariya Al Aamri had arrived in Jordan with a 15-point lead over Al Zubair but his rival's success and fifth place overall has thrown the battle wide open with two rallies remaining. Al Aamri finished second in the category and eighth overall.
Al Zubair said: 'We are happy with this result, It is a very difficult race. It is also very hot. It was our first time here. The first day we were flat out and won every stage. Today, we took it slow. We had a good lead and the strategy paid off.'
Nasser Khalifa Al Atya continued his run of consistent form to bring his Ford Fiesta to the Dead Sea finish in sixth overall with co-driver Ziad Chehab. That result was sufficient for the Qatari veteran to seal success in the inaugural FIA Master MERC Championship with two rounds to run.
The Jordanian duo of Sheikh Bader Al Fayez and Shadi Shaban were classified in seventh and ninth overall.
Tenth place was sufficient for Rashid Al Mohannadi to take victory over Saad Al Harqan and Payyaakkal 'Saneem' Panikkaveettil in the FIA MERC4 category and to seal the championship title in his Peugeot 208 with two rounds to spare.
Al Rawahi earned victory in the second round of the Jordan National Championship with Shaker Jweihan claiming second place ahead of Sheikh Bader Al Fayez.
This year's Jordan Rally was supported by Zain Jordan, Guarantee Travel Group, Hala and Bliss FM, Markazia and Toyota Gazoo Racing Jordan.
The FIA Middle East Rally Championship continues in Lebanon on September 5th-7th.
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