Qatar’s Nasser Al Attiyah wins at Jordan Rally; starts title defence in style
DEAD SEA (JORDAN): Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah and Giovanni Bernacchini finished the Jordan Rally in cruise control to kick-start the defence of the Qatari’s regional rally championship title at the Dead Sea on Saturday.
On the 233rd event in the history of the FIA Middle East Rally Championship (MERC), Al-Attiyah claimed his 85th career victory and a record-breaking 16th in Jordan since 2003. His Autotek Motorsport-prepared Škoda Fabia RS never missed a beat and he was able to try out different suspension settings over the closing stages on his way to a winning margin of 5min 31.6sec on his first appearance in the new car.
Bernacchini duly claimed his fifth victory in Jordan with Al-Attiyah and his first since 2014. A 26th MERC success moved the Italian ahead of Chris Patterson into an outright third in the MERC Co-drivers’ Hall of Fame for most wins behind Ronan Morgan (41) and Mathieu Baumel (32).
Al-Attiyah, who claimed a clean sweep of eight stage wins on Saturday, said: “I am really so happy to win here in Jordan. It is my favourite race. It is the most difficult race in the Middle East. To come back strong with the new car, we learn a lot. Thanks to the team and the organisation. They always make this rally strong. To win 16 times here is amazing. Lebanon is a different race and we need to be clever there as well.”
Abdulaziz Al-Kuwari is now tackling a full programme of MERC events in a QMMF-backed Škoda Fabia and second place to add to the fourth he achieved on his home event means the Qatari is the new leader of the regional championship. Briton Marshall Clarke was his co-driver on this occasion. A puncture and subsequent tyre change after an accident was the only real issue for the duo after a polished performance.
Al-Kuwari: “Very difficult. As I say always, this is the most difficult rally in the world. It is like a school for rally drivers, especially for someone like me who has been way from rally cars more or less for five years. I was driving one rally per year. The pace was not my best. I can be faster but it is not easy to sit five years at home and come and be at Nasser’s speed. We went off in Turki, about 1.5km from the finish but we were lucky. We broke the arm and had a flat tyre and kept going to the finish. But I was cruising on the last stages to the finish. I am very happy to be leading the Middle East and the Jordan national championship. A good half of the season. I don’t think I am far off the pace and will get it soon hopefully.”
