Qatar International Rally to kick off Thursday in Darb Lusail
Doha, February 05 (QNA) – The Qatar International Rally, the second round of the 2025 FIA Middle East Rally Championship (MERC), begins on Thursday, with the Qatar Motor and Motorcycle Federation (QMMF) celebrating the 50th anniversary of the rally’s inaugural edition held in 1975.
The rally’s golden jubilee celebration, set for 6:00pm on Thursday in the Darb Lusail area, will provide fans with a chance to enjoy performances and events that mark an exciting beginning to this year’s edition of the rally in Qatar.
A 4.36-kilometer demonstration stage of the rally will take place at the Lusail Karting circuit. The Qatar International Rally will continue until next Saturday, when an award ceremony will be held at Darb Lusail. The rally’s official competition will feature 6 additional special stages on gravel tracks in Northern Qatar’s desert, to be repeated on Friday and Saturday.
This weekend marks the 50th anniversary of the Qatar Rally, celebrated by the Qatar Motor and Motorcycle Federation (QMMF), and as part of the final arrangements for this event, 28 teams and competitors from 19 nations are getting ready in the service area of the Lusail International Circuit.
Additionally, 21 teams have registered to compete for points in the FIA Middle East Rally Championship.
Nasser Saleh Al Attiyah, a driver from Qatar and 19-time champion of the Middle East and five-time Dakar Rally champion, is taking on a new challenge in his career: trying to add to his record number of Qatar Rally victories (17 titles).
Among the notable winners of the championship are the current president of the Emirates Motorsports Organisation (EMSO) Mohammed Ben Sulayem, who has won the title 9 times, local driver Saeed Al Hajri with 6 titles, and Abdulaziz Al Kuwari, who won his first FIA Middle East Rally Championship title last year and was crowned at the Qatar Rally in 2012.
In the realm of co-drivers, Irishman Ronan Morgan is the record holder with 8 title wins. He is followed by French drivers Mathieu Baumel and Chris Patterson, who have 6 and 5 titles, respectively, having shared the navigation duties with Nasser Al Attiyah. Italian Giovanni Bernacchini secured four victories alongside Al Attiyah from 2010 to 2014.
Two cars classified in Group N/MERC2 achieved the most unexpected victories in the Qatar Rally: Oman’s Nizar Al Shanfari and his co-driver Tom Steele (who has since passed away) won the title in 1999, and Qatari driver Rashid Al Nuaimi alongside his Portuguese co-driver Hugo Magalaes claimed victory in 2017.
The Qatar Rally, first held in 1975 with the Kuwait Rally, is the third oldest rally in the Middle East, after the Lebanon and Cyprus rallies in 1968 and 1970 respectively, and forms the cornerstone of the Gulf Challenge Championship and one of the most famous rallies in the region and the Asian continent.
This year’s Qatar International Rally, marking the 50th anniversary of its inaugural event in 1975, will introduce a new visual identity that embodies the rally’s heritage and history, as well as Qatar’s culture and the burgeoning interest in motor sport over the past five decades.
The Qatar International Rally underwent numerous developments over the years, becoming part of the 2025 FIA Middle East Rally Championship (MERC) and later the Gulf Rally Championship. A significant advancement occurred in 1984 when the Middle East Rally Championship was established, recognized by the International Automobile Federation (FIA) as the region’s first FIA-sanctioned championship. This year also marked the debut of the Qatar International Rally as its opening round.
