(MENAFN- The Peninsula) The Peninsula Online
Muscat: The Oman Rally Team's Abdullah Al Rawahi and Jordanian co-driver Ata Al Hmoud held a comfortable lead of 5min 23.2sec after a further six gravel stages of the Oman International Rally yesterday.
The 2021 event winner was second quickest on each of the fast and flowing gravel speed tests in his Škoda Fabia Evo, despite a flat tyre on the opener, and heads into the final day well placed to win his second ever round of the FIA Middle East Rally Championship.
“I am very happy with how the day went,” said Al Rawahi.
After crashing on Thursday's super special, Nasser Saleh Al Attiyah and his Andorra-based co-driver Mathieu Baumel began a daunting fightback through the field from 13th overall.
“We knew that Nasser would need to push very hard from the start and it was just a case of focusing on our job in hand and keeping our concentration. The rear puncture was not the best of starts but we recovered well and now the outcome is in our hands on the final day.”
Al Attiyah won each of the day's stages but progress was severely hampered when the event Stewards imposed a second penalty of five minutes and a suspended fine on the Volkswagen Golf crew for a seat belt violation that had occurred on the super special stage. The Qatari reached the night halt in seventh overall and trails the leader by 11min 27.4sec.
The Czech crew of Petr Kačirek and Petra Řiháková held second in their Duck Racing Škoda Fabia. The overnight leading Kuwaiti Meshari Al Thefiri and his Qatari co-driver Nasser Al Kuwari were a mere 16.6 seconds behind in third place and 13.5 seconds clear of their closest MERC2 rivals, the fourth-placed Omani crew of Abdullah Al Zubair and Taha Soomar.
The Jordanian duo of Shaker Jweihan and female co-driver Nancy Al Majali rounded off the top five after ongoing technical issues pushed Qatar's Nasser Khalifa Al Atya and Italian team-mate Giovanni Bernacchini down to eighth over the afternoon's loop of stages.
Jordan's Sheikh Bader Al Fayez has a slender hold on sixth place with Al Attiyah closing in from seventh, while Kuwait's Yousef Al Dhefiri and Jordanian Ihab Al Shorafa round off the top 10.
Issa Abu Jamous had dropped down to the national category after falling foul of a fire extinguisher regulation at pre-event scrutineering. But the Jordanian was making the most of his trip to the Sultanate of Oman nonetheless and he and co-driver Yazan Juma led the Oman National Rally by 6min 01.7sec after seven stages.
Abdullah Al Rawahi drives during yesterday's stage.
Al Attiyah was faced with one of his greatest challenges if he was to snatch an eighth win in Oman. He trailed the leader by 10 minutes heading to the first stage of yesterday's morning loop – the 21.98km of Al Khoud. The Qatari didn't disappoint and he beat Al-Rawahi by 63 seconds to claim the stage win and also regained 1min 56.7sec from former leader Al Thefiri.
Al Rawahi had suffered a rear right puncture but duly moved into the lead on a stage where Lebanon's Ahmad Khaled dropped over 10 minutes with his own on-stage tyre problems.
Al Rawahi responded in Jafnein (19.54km) and Al Attiyah was only able to claw back 4.4 seconds. He gained another five on the final stage of the loop at Saal and returned to the midday service at the Oman Automobile Association (OAA) trailing the leading Omani by 8min 42.9sec, although he had climbed above Ihad Al Shorafa into 11th overall.
Al Atya, Al Thefiri, Kačirek and Al Zubair rounded off the top five. Zakariya Al Aamri retired his Subaru with technical issues.
Al Attiyah was 15.2 seconds faster on his second run through Al Khoud and managed to slice another 1min 27.9sec off the leader's advantage. He was now 7min 15sec in arrears. Al Atya lost a couple of minutes and slipped back to fourth behind Al Rawahi, Al Thefiri and Kačirek.
Al Attiyah climbed to seventh, although the Stewards had imposed an additional five-minute penalty on the Qatari for a first stage seat belt violation and he slipped back to ninth place.
Nasser clawed another 22.9 seconds back in SS6 and headed to the last stage of the day trailing Al-Rawahi by 11min 52.1sec.
Another fastest time in SS7 saw Al Attiyah return to the night halt in seventh overall, albeit 11min 27.4sec behind Al Rawahi.