(MENAFN- The Peninsula) The Peninsula
Nasser Saleh Al Attiyah cruised through the final six gravel special stages of the Manateq Qatar International Rally to seal a convincing victory by the margin of 3min 29.6sec yesterday.
A record-breaking 14th victory in his home event also marked a remarkable 70th MERC victory in the 211-event history of the FIA Middle East Rally Championships since 1984. Al Attiyah's French co-driver Matthieu Baumel duly claimed his third MERC win in Qatar and a career 18th.
The success also marked the first outright FIA championship rally win for Volkswagen's Polo GTI R5 that made its debut at the WRC in Spain last October and claimed WRC 2 success in Sweden in February with Norwegian driver Ole Christian Veiby. Customer Polos have already won national events in Belgium, Norway, Sweden and Latvia this year.
Al Attiyah won each of the 11 special stages. He said: 'The first win for the Polo in history in the Middle East. The car and the team were working very well. We learn a lot from this race. It was fun to drive. I get the feeling quickly, like I know the car very well. Now we prepare for Jordan. It's important that we stay in the Middle East Championship.
Baumel added: 'I have 18 wins but I am not at the level of Nasser (70). The last two years we had problems and we retired here in Qatar. This year, with the new car, we were a little bit scared, but the car was perfect. No punctures also. A small scare with a sensor set-up last night but, I guess, this was because it was a new car. It was a good week.
Abdulaziz Al Kuwari got to grips with his Škoda Fabia R5 as the event progressed and he and British co-driver Marshall Clarke finished in a comfortable second place.
Sheikh Hamed bin Eid Al Thani, the 1993 regional champion, claimed his first podium finish at the event since 2010 to give the host nation a first 1-2-3 finish since Al Attiyah's last home win in 2016.
Veteran Nasser Khalifa Al Atya managed to stave off a late challenge from Khalid Al Suwaidi to conserve fourth overall in the battle of the two Ford Fiesta R5s.
Kuwait's Meshari Al Thefiri mixed it with the R5 cars for much of the rally before slipping back to sixth overall after the penultimate stage. The Mitsubishi driver's consolation was a massive winning margin of 18min 34.1sec in MERC 2.
Italy's Stefano Marrini was the leading non-Arab driver in seventh overall and a distant second in MERC 2. Qatar's Rashid Al Mohannadi and Abdulla Al Kuwari were eighth and ninth and Oman's Abdullah Al Ruwahi rounded off the top 10.
Defending MERC 3 champion Henry Kahy got the defence of his title off to the perfect start with 11th overall and first in the two-wheel drive category. Jordan's Asem Aref closed off the FIA finishers in 12th.
Jarah Al Touqi began the last day with a 17min 26.1sec lead in the Manateq Qatar National Rally and finished with a winning margin of 20min 03.4sec. Hamid Al Qasimi was on a charge over the final day and managed to pass Zakariyah Al Amri to take second place before retiring on the last stage.
Oman-based Briton Shaun McGonigal failed to restart from third after his Subaru sustained suspension bush damage after a puncture on the fifth stage.
Action resumes in the regional series in Jordan at the end of April.
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